HOME DEPARTMENT

Arrest Warrants

Conor Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions the Serious Organised Crime Agency has refused to certify a request under the European Arrest Warrant in each of the last five years; and for what reasons in each case.

James Brokenshire: The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) does not refuse to certify European arrest warrant (EAW) requests that it receives which meet the criteria set out in part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003.
	SOCA does not record data on the number of EAWs issued to the UK that do not meet these criteria.

Arrests: Children

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children (a) in total, (b) under the age of 14 years and (c) who are girls were arrested in each division in the South Wales police area in each of the last four years; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: Available information relates to the number of persons aged under 18 arrested by South Wales police between 2007-08 and 2010-11, and is provided in the table.
	Arrests data reported to the Home Office are at police force area only, and aggregated for specific age groups (under 10, 10-17, 18-20, 21 and over).
	
		
			 Persons aged under 18 arrested for notifiable offences by sex, South Wales police force area, 2007-08 to 2010-11 
			  Males Females Total 
			 2007-08 4,905 1,226 6,131 
			 2008-09 4,427 1,020 5,447 
			 2009-10 4,335 1,256 5,591 
			 2010-11 3,225 896 4,121

Civil Disorder

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what assessment she has made of the adequacy of police officer numbers trained to deal with public order offences during the public disorder of August 2011;
	(2)  what estimate she has made of the number of (a) level one and (b) level two public order police officers in each of the last 10 years;
	(3)  if she will consider establishing a central record of the number of level 1 and level 2 public order police officers.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 18 April 2012
	Training is an operational matter for the police service. The Home Office does not collect information about the number of public order trained officers.
	In response to the August disorders of 2011, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) was asked by the Home Secretary to review the national policing response. HMIC's report “Rules of Engagement: A review of the August 2011 disorders” was published in December 2011. This report made four overarching recommendations, three of which directly relate to ensuring the adequacy of public order trained officers. We are working with the police service to ensure that they are prepared for the public order challenges of the future.

Computers: Crime

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she plans to bring forward proposals to amend the provisions in Part III of the Police Act 1997 that allow the police to remotely access personal computers without the owner's consent.

James Brokenshire: As part of the UK's Cyber Security Strategy, published in November 2011, the Government are reviewing existing legislation to ensure that it remains relevant and effective.

Crime: Haringey

David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reports of (a) robberies, (b) burglaries, (c) serious violence and (d) gang-related crime there were in the London borough of Haringey in each quarter since January 2005.

James Brokenshire: Data on recorded offences of robbery, burglary and violence against the person (the term “serious violence” is not used by the Home Office for categorising offences) are provided in Table A. Data are available for each quarter requested until December 2011.
	The requested data on gang-related offences are not available centrally.
	
		
			 Table A: Recorded offences of burglary, robbery and violence against the person, Haringey CDRP, 2005 to 2011 
			  Burglary Robbery Violence against the person 
			 2005    
			 January to March 1,105 473 1,681 
			 April to June 900 501 1,969 
			 July to September 970 502 1,784 
			 October to December 1,000 555 1,617 
			     
			 2006    
			 January to March 971 466 1,551 
			 April to June 871 472 1,547 
			 July to September 724 370 1,408 
			 October to December 1,059 534 1,345 
		
	
	
		
			 2007    
			 January to March 905 570 1,351 
			 April to June 854 466 1,437 
			 July to September 925 307 1,346 
			 October to December 956 376 1,323 
			     
			 2008    
			 January to March 985 359 1,271 
			 April to June 926 298 1,411 
			 July to September 810 301 1,376 
			 October to December 1,025 264 1,249 
			     
			 2009    
			 January to March 1,015 275 1,276 
			 April to June 626 314 1,439 
			 July to September 894 250 1,269 
			 October to December 993 253 1,229 
			     
			 2010    
			 January to March 792 266 1,167 
			 April to June 741 264 1,336 
			 July to September 773 281 1,230 
			 October to December 969 246 1,174 
			     
			 2011    
			 January to March 944 279 1,154 
			 April to June 827 495 1,163 
			 July to September 906 377 1,202 
			 October to December 942 313 1,189

Crimes of Violence: Sports

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) killed and (b) seriously injured in one punch attacks in (i) Nottinghamshire, (ii) the East Midlands and (iii) England in each of the last five years.

Nick Herbert: The requested data on the number of people killed or seriously injured in one punch attacks are not available centrally.

Databases: Telecommunications

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the technical viability of the Communications Capabilities Development Programme.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The technical capabilities required for the Communications Capabilities Development programme have been selected on the basis of proven technology. Technical viability is kept under review through periodic external assurance reviews and by consulting with industry, suppliers and other Government Departments.

Databases: Telecommunications

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what formal advice she has received from the Information Commissioner on the Communications Capabilities Development Programme since October 2010.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 23 April 2012
	Home Office officials have consulted the Information Commissioner on the Communications Capabilities Development programme and continue to work with his team on the privacy impact assessment which will accompany any proposals.

Databases: Telecommunications

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which (a) Government departments, (b) external experts and (c) private companies have been consulted on the Communications Capabilities Development Programme since May 2010.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The Home Office has engaged with other Government Departments, the National Security Council, external experts and operational stakeholders. There is ongoing engagement with relevant industry representatives.

Drugs: Alcoholic Drinks

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the monetary value of illegal (a) drugs, (b) alcohol and (c) tobacco sales in the UK in each of the last five years.

Chloe Smith: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Treasury.
	Owing to the variations in the potential sales values, estimates of the monetary value of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco sales are not available.
	HMRC estimates losses in revenue associated with illicit sales of tobacco products, beer and spirits. These estimates are published in “Measuring Tax Gaps 2011”, which can be found at the following link:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/measuring-tax-gaps.htm
	The Home Office publish statistics on the number and size of drugs seizures in “Seizures of drugs in England and Wales 2010/11”, which can be found at the link:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/police-research/

Entry Clearances: Overseas Students

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what deadline her Department has set for completing the process of transferring to Sheffield all Tier 4 applications remaining in Croydon.

James Brokenshire: The process of transferring to Sheffield all Tier 4 applications remaining in Croydon was completed on 29 March 2012.

Entry Clearances: Overseas Students

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time was for processing an application to extend a Tier 4 visa in the latest period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The UK Border Agency records this information but it is not held in a format compatible with National Statistics protocols.
	However, published statistics are available on the percentage of migration applications decided within service standards. This publication is available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Science, Research and Statistics website at:
	http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/percentage-of-migration/

Forensic Science: Manpower

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time equivalent staff worked for the (a) NPIA, (b) Forensic Transition Board and (c) Forensic Regulator in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many staff are expected to work for those organisations in 2012-13; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: The information requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Full-time equivalent staff working for the NPIA, Forensic Transition Board and Forensic Regulator 
			  2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 
			 NPIA 1,948 1,610 (1)— 
			 Forensic Transition Board (2)— (2)— (2)— 
			 Forensic Regulator 7 5 4 
			 (1) On 1 April 2012 the NPIA have 1,440 full-time equivalent staff. (2) The Forensic Transition Board is a programme board and does not carry a permanent headcount

National Crime Agency: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to establish ministerial accountability for the direction and control of officers of the National Crime Agency in Northern Ireland.

Nick Herbert: Subject to the passage of legislation, the National Crime Agency will be under the direction and control of the director general, including in Northern Ireland. In terms of ministerial accountability, the director general will be accountable to the Home Secretary.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to give police and crime commissioners the powers they need to reduce crime.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 19 March 2012
	Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) will be elected to cut crime; for the first time the public will know who leads the fight against crime in their community. They will have all the powers that they need to put the public's priorities first and hold the chief constable to account for the police's response to crime. PCCs will provide strong local leadership in preventing crime, especially reoffending, and will work with local community safety and criminal justice partners. PCCs will hold a budget to reduce crime through the community safety fund, which will focus on tackling drugs and crime, reduce reoffending and improve community safety.

Police and Crime Commissioners

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency will apply to police and crime commissioners as it applies to police authorities.

Nick Herbert: The Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency will not apply to police and crime commissioners. Instead, section 11 of the Police Reform Act 2011 and the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011 set out information to be published by commissioners. The content of the Code was taken into account in drafting the Order.

Police Custody

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many custody suites, with how many cells, there are in use in police stations in each English region; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  if she will list the location of police stations with a custody suite and the number of cells contained therein in London in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement;
	(3)  how many police holding cells were mothballed in each London borough in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The information requested is not held centrally. The designation of police custody facilities under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is an operational matter for chief officers of police.

Police Custody

Stephen Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many police holding cells have been mothballed in the Metropolitan police area since April 2011;
	(2)  how many holding cells were available to the Metropolitan police in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011.

Nick Herbert: The information requested is not held centrally. The designation of police custody facilities under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is an operational matter for chief officers of police.

Police: Consultants

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many former police officers have been hired by their former force as a consultant (a) in an individual capacity and (b) through a private security company in each of the last five years; and what estimate she has made of the cost of such consultants.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 19 April 2012
	This information is not held centrally by the Department.

Police: Football

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by police forces on policing football matches in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 24 April 2012
	This information is not held centrally. The amount spent on policing football matches is a matter for the relevant police authority.

Police: Football

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how much funding the Merseyside Police force received in respect of policing of football matches from (a) Everton Football Club and (b) Liverpool Football Club in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  how much funding the Metropolitan police received in respect of the policing of football matches from (a) Chelsea Football Club, (b) Fulham Football Club, (c) Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, (d) Queens Park Rangers Football Club and (e) Arsenal Football Club in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: The information is not held centrally. The amount charged to football clubs in respect of policing football matches is a matter for the relevant police authority.

Police: Nottinghamshire

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Nottinghamshire police have been retired under the provisions of Regulation A19 since May 2010.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 24 April 2012
	The requested information is not collected centrally.

Public Consultation

Michael Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which of her Department's consultations have been externally verified since 2007; for what reason and by whom such verification was carried out; and what the cost to the public purse was of such verification.

James Brokenshire: Home Office consultations are carried out internally in consultation with stakeholders. It is not Home Office policy to verify consultations externally.

Public Consultation

Michael Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether her Department accepts anonymous contributions to its consultations.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office policy is to accept anonymous contributions to consultations.

Public Order Offences: Police

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding her Department provided for level (a) one and (b) two training of police officers to deal with public order offences in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 19 April 2012
	The Government allocates funding for police authorities using the police allocation formula (PAF). The PAF distributes funding based on the estimated work load of the force. The funding provided to police authorities is not ring-fenced and therefore the amount spent on training provision is a matter for the relevant chief officer and the police authority.

Serious Organised Crime Agency: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on ministerial accountability for the direction and control of officers of the Serious Organised Crime Agency in Northern Ireland.

Nick Herbert: The director general of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is responsible for the direction and control of SOCA officers, including in Northern Ireland. In cases where SOCA officers are providing assistance to another law enforcement agency (under provisions in the Serious Organised Crime Act 2005), they will be under the direction and control of the chief officer of that agency.
	The Home Secretary is accountable for SOCA.

Serious Organised Crime Agency: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who is responsible for the direction and control of officers dealing with organised crime carried out by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: The chief officers of the relevant agencies are responsible for the direction and control of their officers.

Theft: Metals

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to provide information to local authorities on changes to the law on scrap and itinerant metal dealers.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office is in discussion with the Local Government Association and the Association of Chief Police Officers on how to communicate these changes to local authorities and police forces.

Theft: Metals

Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps she has taken to prevent metal theft.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The Government are delivering a coherent package of measures to tackle metal theft. We have amended the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to prohibit cash payments to purchase scrap metal, to increase the financial penalties of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and to review police entry powers into scrap metal yards. In addition, the Government have enhanced enforcement activity through the additional Government funded National Metal Theft Taskforce and are developing innovative design solutions that both improve traceability of stolen metal and act as a stronger deterrent for thieves and unscrupulous scrap metal dealers.

UK Border Force

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget is for the UK Border Force in 2012-13.

James Brokenshire: The net resource budget for UK Border Force for 2012-13 is £400 million.

Vacancies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many job vacancies there were for (a) staff posts and (b) senior Civil Service posts in her Department on 31 March (i) 2010, (ii) 2011 and (iii) 2012; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The number of job vacancies for staff posts and senior civil service posts on the dates specified could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

SCOTLAND

Aviation: Scotland

Mark Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what meetings he has had with (a) Ministerial colleagues and (b) Scottish Ministers on steps to ensure continuity of air services to and from Scotland.

David Mundell: Scotland Office Ministers meet regularly with ministerial colleagues and Scottish Ministers to discuss a range of transport issues affecting Scotland, including air services. The Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening) visited Scotland last month and met with Scottish Minsters responsible for transport infrastructure, along with the Secretary of State for Scotland, the right hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Michael Moore).
	Transport connectivity is a major issue for businesses. Under the auspices of this Department's Scottish Business Board, a connected Scotland specialist group was established earlier this year to advise the UK Government on connectivity issues affecting Scottish consumers and businesses, including air services to and from Scotland. This group first met in February 2012, bringing together representatives from the Department for Transport, HM Treasury, Transport Scotland, local businesses and industry bodies.

PRIME MINISTER

Nuclear Power Stations

Paul Flynn: To ask the Prime Minister whether he has made an assessment of the letter and briefing on the financing of new nuclear power plants sent to him by four former directors of Friends of the Earth on 13 March 2012.

David Cameron: A reply to the letter will be sent shortly.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Charitable Donations

Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport 
	(1)  if he will place in the Library all representations he has received on the proposed cap on tax relief for philanthropic donations announced in the Budget 2012;
	(2)  how many representations he has received in respect of the proposed cap on tax relief for philanthropic donations announced in Budget 2012; and what proportion of such representations were in favour of the proposal.

Jeremy Hunt: holding answer 25 April 2012
	It is not the Department's usual practice to publish correspondence other than when it is in response to public consultation.
	The Department has received a number of representations expressing numerous opinions on the Budget 2012 philanthropic tax relief cap.

Listed Buildings

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many listed buildings are in community ownership.

John Penrose: I'm afraid this information is not available. English Heritage's Listed Building System does not record types of ownership of listed buildings.

St George's Day

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport if he will make St George's Day a public holiday.

John Penrose: The Government regularly receives representations requesting additional bank holidays, or moving existing ones, but there are no plans to change the existing pattern at present. As part of the Government's tourism strategy a pre-consultation was launched last year on moving the May Day bank holiday. A decision about the outcome of the pre-consultation will be made in due course. Any discussions would need to involve the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), who have overall policy responsibility for bank holidays, together with other Departments and the devolved Governments.

Television

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of (a) the system for rating television and films in respect of violent content and (b) arrangements for monitoring that system; and whether he plans to commission a formal review of that system.

Edward Vaizey: No assessment has been made. The rules on media content standards are the responsibility of media regulators that are independent of Government. It is these regulators who assess the sort of material that is appropriate for different audiences. In relation to broadcasting, Ofcom is responsible for maintaining standards to protect children and the wider public from harmful material. Ofcom's Broadcasting Code therefore includes specific requirements to protect people under 18. Within this framework, it is the broadcasters' job to make judgements about what individual programmes should contain and the time at which they are broadcast.
	The statutory powers for controlling access to cinema films lie with local authorities. They are generally guided by the age ratings awarded by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

Television

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what government-funded studies have been carried out into the impact of television and screen violence on actual violence, giving (a) the amount spent on each study, (b) the name of the university or research institution that carried out the study and (c) any Government scheme that resulted from these studies in each of the last five years for which information is available.

Edward Vaizey: No Government funded studies have been undertaken into the impact of television and screen violence on actual violence in the last five years.
	In relation to television, the rules on broadcast content standards are the responsibility of Ofcom who are independent of Government, it is for Ofcom to assess the sort of material that is appropriate for different audiences and they have put in place strict rules to ensure that broadcast content is appropriately scheduled and children are not exposed to inappropriate material. Ofcom's rules must be robust and based on the best evidence, if new evidence which clearly showed existing levels of TV violence as a major problem in the UK then Ofcom would need to consider this fully and act accordingly.
	Similarly, in relation to cinema films and DVDs, while no Government funded studies have been undertaken, we keep in touch with academic research on the subject.

Television

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effect of excessive watching of television on (a) aggressive behaviour, (b) childhood obesity and (c) sleeping disturbance.

Edward Vaizey: No assessment has been made. The rules on broadcast content standards are the responsibility of Ofcom who are independent of Government. It is for Ofcom to assess the sort of material that is appropriate for different audiences and they have put in place strict rules to ensure that broadcast content is appropriately scheduled and children are not exposed to inappropriate material.
	To do this, Ofcom do undertake occasional studies of particular areas of concern to consumers. For example, following a review of research into the effects of television advertising on food preferences, Ofcom concluded that the findings pointed to ‘modest direct effects on food preference, consumption and behaviour'. As a result, Ofcom introduced a ban on the scheduling of high fat, salt and sugar advertising and sponsorship during children's airtime and around programmes with a disproportionately high child audience, and imposed content rules on all food and drink advertising aimed at children.

Writers: Females

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of female television and film scriptwriters employed in the UK.

Edward Vaizey: The Government has not undertaken any assessment of female scriptwriters in television and film.
	The public service broadcasters are required to meet obligations on the promotion of equality between men and women arising from the BBC Charter and Communications Act 2003. The Government is aware of the broadcasters' strong commitment to diversity in the work place. For film, lead public agency the British Film Institute has a proud track-record of commitment to diversity, both in the workplace and in its cultural programme.

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

VAT: Listed Buildings

Richard Graham: To ask the hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, what estimate the Church Commissioners have made of the potential cost to the Church of England of the Government's proposals to charge VAT on alterations to listed buildings.

Tony Baldry: The Church of England has calculated the potential and additional VAT burden on the Church as a result of charging standard rate VAT on alterations to listed buildings is up to £20 million a year. We estimate that £100 million was spent on alterations to listed churches and cathedral buildings in 2011.
	From our estimates, 88% of Church of England churches in the Gloucester Diocese are listed. Many of these churches are already taking on substantial local fundraising projects in order to finance the necessary upgrades to their heating, lighting and general fabric, to enable the buildings to be used for community activity.

Churches: Repairs and Maintenance

Phillip Lee: To ask the hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, what assessment he has made of the financial effect of the removal of VAT relief on maintenance and restoration of churches, abbeys and cathedrals with listed building status on parochial church councils.

Tony Baldry: The Church of England has calculated that the ending of the VAT exemption for listed building alterations is likely to cost it £20 million per year nationally. The Church of England has responsibility for the care and upkeep of 12,500 listed churches and cathedrals across England, which is largely met by the voluntary giving and activity of its congregations. The majority of alterations to listed church buildings take place in order to improve access to them and to broaden their use by the wider community.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Air Quality: London

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to improve air quality in London.

Richard Benyon: The Mayor of London's Air Quality Strategy sets out a detailed plan for improving air quality in London. The Government are working closely with the Mayor to support delivery of these plans, including through significant investment in cleaner, more sustainable transport.

Food Exports

Sarah Newton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to support the food industry and promote food exports.

Caroline Spelman: DEFRA works closely with the food industry to encourage innovation, competitiveness and growth. The joint Government-industry action plan, “Driving Export Growth in the Farming, Food and Drink Sector”, published in January, details how we will work together to open up and take advantage of key markets to boost our economy and generate jobs.

Agriculture

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to recruit the 60,000 new entrants it estimates are needed in the agricultural sector over the next 10 years.

James Paice: The agricultural industry leads itself in recruiting young entrants. Government is supportive of measures to encourage people to work in the agricultural sector and we aim to create the right climate for the industry to grow. DEFRA works with the industry through the Agri-Skills Forum to help develop the current and future skills base. The Government has recently announced a number of measures to support apprenticeships which can be used in the agricultural sector.

Air Pollution

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to improve air quality.

Richard Benyon: Air quality in the UK is much improved, though more needs to be done, especially in cities where transport is the main issue. We must strike a balance between protecting health and the environment and supporting sustainable economic growth. Working with local authorities and others, we are investing significantly in cleaner, more sustainable transport. Underperformance against European vehicle emission standards is making compliance on nitrogen dioxide challenging for us and many other member states.

Animals

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent steps her Department has taken on animal health legislation within Europe to improve disease prevention.

James Paice: As noted in my response to the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) on 19 March 2012, Official Report, columns 538-39W, the European Commission is currently developing a new legal framework for managing animal health in the EU and UK officials are closely and pro-actively involved with this. We expect the Commission to come forward with final proposals to Council in the autumn of 2012 and are actively engaged with industry to ensure we take best advantage of the opportunities this presents.
	On a disease specific basis, with the agreement of member states and where justified, the European Commission introduces safeguard measures to prevent disease spread. DEFRA pro-actively monitors the global disease situation and risk assessments are used to inform the Commission measures.

Crops

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of (a) yellow and (b) brown rust on susceptible crops across the UK.

James Paice: DEFRA, through the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) and its collaboration partners, has several measures in place to assess and manage the impact of yellow rust and brown rust of wheat and brown rust of barley.
	Fera conducts an annual assessment of diseases in commercial wheat crops which determines the severity and incidence of both these rust diseases. The results allow their impact on crop yield and their influence on agronomic practice to be monitored and fed back to Government and the industry. Surveys undertaken after fungicides have been applied show that between 2001 and 2010 yellow rust affected an average of 1% of crops each year while brown rust affected 10%. Fera scientists also lead a project (CropMonitor) which reports weekly intelligence on disease development in wheat and provides early warnings of changes in disease pressures (including yellow rust and brown rust) which assist farmers in making decisions on crop management.
	EU legislation requires National Listing (registration) of cereal varieties as a condition for marketing seed. The UK listing process includes testing new varieties for their resistance to these diseases, to prevent highly susceptible varieties from reaching the market and to encourage plant breeders to develop increased resistance. Data produced for National Listing are added to by the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) in further testing for the UK Recommended List, providing information on the best varieties for UK conditions.
	Fera and HGCA jointly fund the UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS), which monitors populations of yellow rust and brown rust of wheat and brown rust of barley for changes in virulence and the ability to infect previously resistant varieties. In the last two years, the UKCPVS has provided advance warning of significant changes in both wheat pathogens, helping farmers to manage their crops and to select more resistant varieties for their new plantings.

Dangerous Dogs

Roger Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects to make a statement relating to the introduction of enhanced dog control measures.

James Paice: I am pleased to say that on 23 April, Government announced a consultation on measures to tackle irresponsible dog owners. These measures include extending the existing dangerous dogs law to cover all private property in England and bring forward measures whereby all dogs are compulsorily microchipped.

Droughts

Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had on the extent of drought; and if she will make a statement.

Caroline Spelman: Drought is a natural phenomenon and so the Government together with the Environment Agency and water companies have contingency plans. Since May 2011, we have held three drought summits and established the National Drought Group to co-ordinate actions to manage the impacts of the drought. Water companies are taking action to conserve the public water supply.
	We put resilience at the heart of the Water White Paper precisely because of the future challenges that we will face.

Horses

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether her Department plans to take steps to promote the safety of horses in future Grand Nationals.

James Paice: Naturally, we are sad to hear of the deaths of two racehorses at this year's Grand National.
	We understand that the British Horseracing Association (BHA) is examining the incidents which led to the deaths of the two horses. I am sure the BHA will conduct a very thorough examination and we look forward to seeing its conclusions in due course. In the meantime, I think it would be premature to suggest that there needs to be any Government intervention.

Inland Waterways

Claire Perry: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to secure the long-term future of rivers and waterways.

Richard Benyon: We are making excellent progress with our plan to transfer British Waterways' navigations in England and Wales to the Canal and River Trust. Funding has been agreed; the charity has been registered; the Board of Trustees is in place; the Charity's Council has had its first meeting; and recruitment of members of the Waterways Partnerships is well under way. Subject to parliamentary approval, we plan to transfer the waterways in July, ensuring the network's long-term future.

Rural Areas: Finance

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many applications she expects to be made for the Rural Economy Grant.

James Paice: The Rural Economy Grant was launched on 29 February and the first outline application round closes on 30 April. Eligible applicants will be able to apply for up to 40% of their project costs.
	As of 23 April, 91 applications had been submitted but it is usual in schemes such as this to receive most applications in the last few days of the given application window. There has been a high level of interest, with over a 1,000 telephone and e-mail inquiries received.
	Depending on take up, a further two outline rounds will be held by the end of June 2013. A second application round, including support for renewable energy, is planned to be launched in this autumn.

Veterinary Services

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will publish any impact assessment her Department has carried out on the closure of animal health and veterinary laboratories.

James Paice: No impact assessment was carried out as it was not a requirement in this case, as the decision was a change to Animal Health Veterinary Laboratory Agency's operational delivery and did not require any policy or regulatory change.

Veterinary Services

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of whether farms will have access to post-mortem facilities within one hour following the proposed closure of animal health and veterinary laboratories.

James Paice: The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratory Agency (AHVLA) rationalisation does not close any AHVLA Laboratory Sites but separates the need for post-mortem facilities to be co-located with laboratory testing services.
	AHVLA is seeking to identify ways to undertake veterinary surveillance both more effectively and at an affordable cost to the taxpayer. Work in this area has been on-going since 2010, and the merger of the former Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency has created opportunities to review how veterinary surveillance can best be delivered.
	The Surveillance Advisory Group (chaired by Dirk Pfeiffer, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College, and including representatives from Government, the veterinary profession and the livestock farming and private laboratory industries) was established so all those with an interest in veterinary surveillance could help shape a future delivery model for veterinary surveillance in England and Wales and ensure that all issues were thoroughly considered.
	Surveillance has historically been based on in-depth investigation of disease incidents with an emphasis on post-mortem examinations carried out at AHVLA's regional laboratories. This system is a key element in the Government's risk-based approach to the management of animal disease related threats.
	One of the recommendations made, and accepted by Government, is the establishment of a tiered surveillance network that provides an improvement from the current level of approximately 50% of holdings and animals having access to a post-mortem facility or collection point within an hour's travel time, with the aim of achieving such access for 95% of holdings and animals. AHVLA will be engaged in taking forward work to implement the SAG report's recommendations and will explore delivery and implementation options, and a project team, will be established to develop a detailed implementation plan.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Energy

Alan Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to encourage local energy generation for local communities.

Gregory Barker: The Department recently announced that the second round of renewable heat premium payments will offer £8 million to communities. The Department is also working with the Energy Saving Trust on monitoring the outcomes of the £10 million Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) which helped 237 communities across England and Wales.
	The Department is working with DEFRA on a rural development fund which will offer loans to help community groups in rural areas get planning permission for local energy projects.
	The Government website "Community Energy Online" provides information on developing community energy policies and can be accessed at:
	http://ceo.decc.gov.uk/
	As part of the Phase 2b consultation on feed-in tariffs (FITs) we are seeking views on the definition of “community” and how it could be used in practice. The consultation will close on 26 April and we intend to publish the response in summer.
	In order to ensure that these and any new developments have input from community energy practitioners across the country, I have also established an informal ministerial advisory group on community energy.

Energy: Conservation

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will have discussions with the US Department of Energy on the potential effects on the energy saving market of its Apps for Energy competition.

Gregory Barker: Ministers and officials in DECC regularly meet with their counterparts in the US Department of Energy to discuss a range of energy issues.
	The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), last met with US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu on 24 April.
	DECC ran a similar exercise to Apps for Energy with app developers as part of National Hack the Government Day 2012. Officials in the Department are happy to discuss this and share any learning that might benefit the Apps for Energy competition with the US Department of Energy.

Energy: Housing

Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to reduce leakage points and permeability in homes in order to increase energy efficiency.

Gregory Barker: We will launch the Green Deal later this year and this will radically improve take up of energy efficiency measures in homes and businesses.
	The coalition Government have also established the Energy Efficiency Deployment Office to develop, by the end of the year, an overarching strategy to drive greater energy efficiency across the economy.

Green Deal Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will take steps to ensure customers are not charged more for home improvements under the Green Deal than they save in cheaper energy bills.

Gregory Barker: People who have a Green Deal can expect to save. At the centre of the Green Deal, is a robust assessment methodology for calculating the amount of finance that can be offered by a Green Deal provider. The Golden Rule, the principle that savings should be equal to or more than the costs will help ensure customers realise savings from the outset if desired. In addition, the occupancy assessment will help to ensure the Green Deal is appropriate for the customer in question.
	It is not possible for Government to guarantee people will save money as they may change the way they use energy, for example by heating their home for longer each day. They should however, still save money compared to what it would have cost to power their home in that way without a Green Deal.
	In addition, it would not be reasonable for Government to prevent people from knowingly investing in measures which only partially pay for themselves if they desire to improve the energy efficiency of their building further. Trials have shown the option of blending Green Deal finance with other finance options or upfront payments is desirable.

Green Deal Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 19 April 2012, Official Report, columns 487-8W, on the Green Deal scheme, how long he expects training leading to a Green Deal adviser qualification to take for those not already trained and qualified as energy assessors.

Gregory Barker: The length of training required for each candidate will depend on their existing level of skills. Those starting from scratch are likely to require approximately 32 days of training while those with other relevant skills are expected to receive credit, reducing the length of the training required.
	The Government recently announced £1 million for the training of up to 1,000 advisors in readiness for the rollout of the Green Deal. Details will be announced shortly.

Green Deal Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 19 April 2012, Official Report, column 488W, on the Green Deal scheme, what estimate he has made of the likely cost of training leading to a green deal assessor qualification for individuals not already trained and qualified as energy assessors.

Gregory Barker: Training costs will vary depending on the existing skills possessed by the candidate and the learning providers in question. Early discussions with the sector indicate that those starting from scratch could expect a cost of approximately £4,500 while those with other relevant skills are expected to receive credit, reducing the length of the training required and the cost.
	The Government recently announced £1 million for the training of up to 1,000 advisors in readiness for the rollout of the Green Deal. Details will be announced shortly.

Green Deal Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the costs and benefits of window film as a potential green deal measure for non-domestic properties.

Gregory Barker: DECC is in the process of reviewing Green Deal consultation responses, including views and evidence we have received as to which measures could qualify for Green Deal finance in the non domestic sector. The finalised list of measures will be published shortly.

Ministerial Meetings

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had any meetings with (i) Simon Hoare, (ii) CGMS, (iii) Freshwater UK, (iv) Intermodality LLP, (v) BNP Paribas Real Estate, (vi) Helio Europe and (vii) Bircham Dyson Bell LLP since May 2010; and whether he has received any recent representations from each such individual or organisation since May 2010.

Gregory Barker: Meetings between DECC Ministers and external organisations are published quarterly on the Department's website, as are meetings between the Permanent Secretary and external organisations. For quarters which have not yet been published these will be published in due course.
	BNP Paribas Real Estate are acting as DECC's agent on the rent review of 3 Whitehall Place and one official has had two meetings with BNP Paribas since May 2010, as well as some telephone and e-mail contact.

Ministerial Meetings

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had any discussions on (i) the Helioslough Radlett rail freight exchange proposal and (ii) other rail freight issues since May 2010; and whether they have received any representations on these issues since May 2010.

Gregory Barker: Meetings between DECC Ministers and external organisations are published quarterly on the Department's website, as are meetings between the Permanent Secretary and external organisations. For quarters which have not yet been published these will be published in due course.
	I am not aware of any contact between officials and the organisations mentioned since May 2010.

Public Consultation

Michael Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether his Department accepts anonymous contributions to its consultations.

Gregory Barker: Yes, the Department accepts anonymous contributions to consultations. Where contributors wish to remain anonymous their contact details are removed from the published Government response.

Renewable Energy: Heating

Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the potential effects of the time taken for the introduction of the renewable heat incentive on achievement of the UK's renewable heat targets.

Gregory Barker: DECC has estimated in the RHI impact assessment, see
	www.decc.gov.uk/rhi
	that the RHI will promote 56.5 TWh of renewable heat by 2020. This is on top of the 12 TWh (Dukes 2010) that already exist. DECC estimates that the delay to the RHI could impact renewable heat produced in 2020 by around 8 TWh. However this is a central deployment estimate for a demand-led scheme, and is the result of a number of uncertain assumptions around demand and supply chain growth. It is possible that in practice deployment could be faster or slower than DECC's central estimates.
	These estimates do not include further anticipated additions to the non-domestic RHI scheme and the domestic scheme which are yet to be launched.
	There are no specific targets for renewable heat or electricity within the overall 15% renewable energy target for 2020, however there is a 10% sub-target for renewable transport. The UK Renewable Energy Roadmap, published in July 2011, provided illustrative 'central ranges' for deployment for a number of renewable technologies based upon modelling of variables such as technology cost, build rates, and the policy framework. This builds on the UK National Energy Action Plan (2010) which provided indicative sectoral shares.

Renewable Energy: Heating

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what discussions he has had on including recycled oils in the second phase of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment.

Gregory Barker: While we have considered the use of bioliquids in renewable heat incentives prior to any consultation on the long-term support for renewable heat in the domestic sector, bioliquids are not part of the renewable heat premium payment as this scheme provides grants towards the installation of renewable heating systems certified under the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS); there are no bioliquid fuelled renewable heating systems certified under the MCS.

Renewable Energy: Research

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which 10 renewable energy technologies have received the most investment for research and development purposes in each year since 2005; and how much the Government spent on research and development for each such technology in each year since 2005.

David Willetts: holding answer 20 January 2012
	I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	he Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) provides funding to the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to support research and development. These bodies are each responsible for determining detailed distribution between priorities. The following tables show expenditure on research and development into all renewable energy sources for all years available since 2005.
	
		
			 Table 1: Research Councils UK Energy Programme 
			 £00 0 
			  2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 Total 
			 Biofuel 184 326 300 531 5,775 6,390 13,506 
			 Biomass 1,671 2,135 3,813 7,427 9,015 10,020 34,081 
			 CHP 51 23 87 25 0 0 186 
			 Fuel cells 1,207 2,300 2,255 3,484 4,373 6,477 20,095 
			 Hydrogen 1,499 1,208 3,290 3,778 3,818 4,396 17,990 
			 Solar 1,764 1,473 2,046 1,987 1,179 97 8,546 
			 Photovoltaic 2,531 2,308 6,472 8,564 12,805 10,335 43,016 
			 Wave & tidal 1,026 633 1,015 3,117 1,856 8,039 15,687 
			 Wind 125 1,074 768 1,129 1,649 3,168 7,913 
			 Waste 79 86 109 112 156 0 541 
			 Geothermal 106 153 348 311 75 0 994 
			 Storage 789 1,557 1,713 1,855 2,644 2,344 10,902 
			 Networks 3,666 4,236 3,336 5,545 11,205 9,574 37,562 
			 Other renewable 114 500 960 1,131 1,589 1,184 5,478 
			 Total renewable 14,813 18,013 26,512 38,996 56,138 62,023 216,495 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Technology Strategy Board 
			 £000 
			  2007- 0 8 2008- 0 9 2009-10 2010-11 Total 
			 Bioenergy 203 1,869 206 358 2,636 
			 Hydrogen 293 0 872 1,423 2,588 
			 Solar/PV 1,402 0 1,283 765 3,450 
			 Wave and Tidal 2,560 0 303 0 2,863 
			 Wind 3,456 0 455 461 4,372 
			 Total renewable 7,914 1,869 3,119 3,007 15,909 
			 Note: TSB was set up in July 2007 and took over the management of a large set of projects that had been launched in late 2006-07, plus announced its own new group of competitions in 2007-88. This meant that there was insufficient head room in its budget to implement new competitions in 2008-09—hence there is a significant reduction in commitment and spend in this year. 
		
	
	A number of organisations including the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) fund renewable energy innovation including demonstration projects. Full data are published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) at:
	http://www.iea.org/stats/prodresult.asp?PRODUCT=Renewables

Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what discussions he has had on including recycled oils in the Renewable Heat Incentive.

Gregory Barker: My officials have held discussions with a range of stakeholders on the possibility of including bioliquids (including recycled oils) in the RHI. The Government will be consulting on this and other issues in relation to the extension of the RHI to additional technologies and fuel types in September 2012.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Sri Lanka

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to the International Crisis Group report on Sri Lanka: Women's Insecurity in the North and East, if he will provide aid to non-governmental organisations in Sri Lanka to assist women who are or are at risk of becoming victims of sexual violence and exploitation.

Alan Duncan: There are no plans for DFID to provide further bilateral aid to non-government organisations in Sri Lanka. Her Majesty's Government continues to have concerns about human rights in Sri Lanka and the High Commission in Colombo regularly meets with the Sri Lankan Government to discuss a range of these issues, including those of women in the North and East.

DEFENCE

Addison Lee

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what meetings (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in his Department have had with John Griffin of Addison Lee since 12 May 2010.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 24 April 2012
	Details of meetings between Ministers and senior officials with external organisations are published on a quarterly basis. Meetings from October 2011 will be published in due course.
	The special advisers have not held any meetings with John Griffin.
	We are not aware of any meeting between officials and John Griffin but a definitive answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Armed Forces: Elections

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to ensure that military personnel are registered and encouraged to vote in elections.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 25 April 2012
	On 21 February 2012 a publicity campaign was launched to encourage all service personnel and their families to register to vote. The Minister for the Armed Forces, the hon. Member for North Devon (Nick Harvey), attended the Service Voter Registration Day held in the Ministry of Defence, and similar events were held on military establishments both in the United Kingdom and overseas. A Defence Instruction Notice has also been published advising how service personnel can register to exercise their vote.
	We continue to work closely with the Cabinet Office and the Electoral Commission to promote Service Voter registration in line with the commitment made in the coalition programme for Government. We will also make special arrangements to allow service personnel serving overseas to vote in general elections.

Armed Forces: Pay

Sheryll Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to review the Tri-Service Regulations for pay and charges. [R]

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 24 April 2012
	The Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) provides independent advice to the Defence Secretary on the remuneration and charges for the armed forces. The review for 2012 was published in March 2012 and made a number of recommendations, all of which have been accepted in full. The AFPRB retains a fundamental, independent role in ensuring that the remuneration package for our service personnel is sufficient to recruit and retain the right people. There are no plans to change this important principle.

Armed Forces: Redundancy

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many redundancies have been announced as part of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 for each (a) Army regiment, (b) naval unit and (c) Royal Air Force group.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The available information will be placed in the Library of the House. However, two important provisos must be noted.
	First, redundancies relate to individuals, not to their posts. This means that in many instances, personnel who leave a particular unit on redundancy will be replaced by re-assigning personnel from elsewhere. The locations and units in which personnel are serving when notified for redundancy do not therefore necessarily represent a reduction in the strength of those locations or units.
	Secondly, service personnel typically change appointment every 18 to 36 months; the units in which personnel were serving when notified will, in some instances, be different from those in which they are serving on exit.
	While the redundancy fields and maximum yields required in Tranche 2 have been published, the selection process is still under way and notices of redundancy will not be given until 12 June 2012. The disposition of redundancies for Tranche 2 is therefore not known at this stage.

Egypt

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to support (a) security sector reform in Egypt and (b) Egyptian civil society to hold security and justice providers to account.

Nick Harvey: holding answer 24 April 2012
	As part of the Building Stability Overseas Strategy, the Ministry of Defence, together with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, is looking to identify ways to provide support for security sector reform in Egypt. This work will include engagement with key decision makers to increase their understanding of security sector reform. It will also help to inform them of the requirements to ensure an accountable security apparatus which operates in accordance with international human rights standards.

Harrier Aircraft

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many Harrier pilots have been made redundant since May 2010;
	(2)  how many Harrier pilots have been redeployed to other duties since May 2010.

Nick Harvey: Since May 2010,109 Royal Air Force and 28 Royal Navy former Harrier pilots have been redeployed to other duties and 12 Royal Navy former Harrier pilots have been made redundant.

Mass Media

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 19 March 2012, Official Report, column 465W, on Departmental contracts, how much his Department has spent on (a) contracts with media companies and (b) media campaigns in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: Approximately 97% of advertising and marketing expenditure by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is for the purpose of recruitment to the armed forces. Advertising and marketing spending exceeding £25,000 has been published centrally on the
	http://data.gov.uk/
	website since June 2010. Total figures for 2011-12 are not yet available. Information held does not discriminate between the costs of contracts with media companies and costs of media campaigns.
	It is important to note that despite a process of redundancies, to reduce the size of the armed forces due to the current financial difficulties, the services need to maintain a strong recruitment process. Although this may appear counter initiative, the services depend on high quality young people and to prevent gaps in specialist skills and the appropriate personnel at all levels of the services, they need to carry on recruiting.
	In addition to the advertising and marketing figures published online, there are a number of MOD contracts let to media companies for the support of service welfare. These contracts which provide internal service television and radio broadcasts, among other welfare services, cost some of £27.7 million in 2009-10, £26.6 million in 2010-11 and £24.5 million in 2011-12.
	Service welfare broadcasts are used to inform our servicemen and women in operational theatres about national and international news, and to provide entertainment for them during the limited down time available to them.

Military Bases: Scotland

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many (a) civilian and (b) service staff were employed at 2nd Division headquarters at Craigiehall in each year since 2009;
	(2)  how many (a) civilian and (b) service staff were employed at Edinburgh Castle in each year since 2009.

Andrew Robathan: Headquarters 2nd Division was closed at the beginning of April 2012. The following tables provide details of the number of Headquarters 2nd Division posts at both Craigiehall and Edinburgh Castle, in each year since 2009:
	
		
			 Craigiehall 
			  April 2009 April 2010 April 2011 
			 UK Regular Forces 80 85 75 
			 Civilian Personnel 120 145 130 
		
	
	
		
			 Edinburgh Castle 
			  April 2009 April 2010 April 2011 
			 UK Regular Forces 30 5 5 
			 Civilian Personnel 50 30 10 
		
	
	Figures are based on the 2nd Division Army Establishment Table for these locations and do not include other Defence units that may be based at these sites.

Navy: Housing

Sheryll Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many members of the Royal Navy are exempt from single living accommodation charges; [R]
	(2)  how many members of the Royal Navy are homeowners but not exempt from single living accommodation charges. [R]

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 24 April 2012
	This information is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Submarines

Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Royal Navy has the capacity to man more than a seven-boat attack submarine fleet.

Nick Harvey: If required, the Royal Navy would be able to complement more than a seven-boat attack submarine fleet through the application of normal manpower planning and submarine programming.

War Widows

Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many post-2005 widows are in receipt of survivors' guaranteed income payments.

Andrew Robathan: Since the introduction of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme in April 2005, payments are issued to surviving adult dependants of the bereaved by way of an index linked Survivors Guaranteed Income Payment for life. As at 30 September 2011, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 215 recipients.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Affordable Housing: Construction

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  what the number of new units of affordable housing built was expressed as a proportion of the number of people on the housing waiting list at the last count date in that year for each local authority in England in each of the last five years;
	(2)  how many new units of affordable housing were built in each of the last five years for each local authority in England.

Grant Shapps: Statistics on additional affordable housing delivered in each local authority in England are published on the Department's website at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/affordablehousingsupply/livetables/
	These statistics cover both new build supply and acquisitions of affordable housing as both routes provide additional affordable supply in an area.
	Figures on the number of households on housing waiting lists are reported by local authorities through their Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix. These data are published in Live Table 600 at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/rentslettings/livetables/
	It should be noted that current legislation does not allow local authorities to set qualification criteria for social housing, and not everyone on housing waiting lists will necessarily be in housing need. Through the allocation provisions in the Localism Act, we are giving back to local authorities the power to decide who should qualify for social housing in their area, and to develop solutions which make best use of the social housing stock. These reforms will help to address the situation within which housing waiting lists have almost doubled over the last decade, with many people left languishing on the waiting list for several years.
	Under the new Affordable Rent model, 146 providers will deliver 80,000 new homes for Affordable Rent and Affordable Home Ownership with Government funding of just under £1.8 billion. We now expect to provide up to 170,000 new affordable homes by 2015, compared to 150,000 originally estimated. The total funding from providers, including the borrowing capacity generated by conversions to Affordable Rent, is almost £10 billion.
	I also refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 December 2011, Official Report, column 1114W.

Community Development

Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many community mobilisers are operating nationally.

Andrew Stunell: We are not currently aware of any community mobilisers operating nationally outside the local programme funded by Milton Keynes council. As this is local programme rather than a DCLG or Government programme we do not currently retain any records on their numbers.

Community Development

Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment his Department has made of the effect of community mobilisers on local communities.

Andrew Stunell: DCLG has not made any formal assessment of the community mobilisers operating as part of the local programme funded by Milton Keynes council. As this is local programme rather than a DCLG or central Government programme we currently have no plans to do so.

Community Development

Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans he has to continue to provide support for work of community mobilisers.

Andrew Stunell: Community mobilisers is a local service funded by Milton Keynes council and operated by local charities and which currently receives no funding from central Government. However we are making it easier for community groups, charities and social enterprises to play an active role in their areas through new community rights, by reducing bureaucracy, and increasing transparency and accountability in the public sector.

Fires: Housing

David Ward: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic fires in England were caused by electrical faults in each of the last five years; and what estimate has been made of the cost of such fires to the fire and rescue services.

Bob Neill: The number of fires in dwellings recorded by fire and rescue authorities as being caused by electrical faults for each of the last five years are shown in the following table.
	The Department has not made any estimate of the costs relating to these incidents.
	
		
			 Accidental dwelling fires due to electrical faults, England 
			  Number 
			 2006-07 6,700 
			 2007-08 6,656 
		
	
	
		
			 2008-09 6,705 
			 2009-10 6,542 
			 2010-11 6,665 
			 Note: One fire and rescue authority did not manage to transfer a complete set of records in 2009-10, and this authority recorded around 200 fewer such incidents in 2009-10, compared to 2010-11. If the totals are indeed undercounting by exactly 200, then the England total for 2009-10 would have been 6,742. Source: Fire Data Report forms (to 2008-09), Incident Recording System (from 2009-10) 
		
	
	In preparing this answer, an inaccuracy was spotted in the response given on 21 June 2011, Official Report, House of Lords, column WA290, to a similar previous question asked by Baroness Hamwee. The answer given included all fires whose source of ignition was electrical appliances and installations, thereby also including fires due to misuse; as well as due to faults. The number of dwelling fires in England and Wales recorded as being due to faults in electrical installation and products was 5,514 in 2008-09, and 5,367 in 2009-10 and 5,285 in 2010-11. These figures are different from the table because the earlier question asked for appliances and installations, and thus does not include incidents due to electrical faults in the wiring of the buildings, and because it was for England and Wales.

Risk Assessment

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer of 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 204W, on risk assessment, if he will list the risk registers maintained by (a) the Neighbourhoods Group, (b) the Finance and Corporate Services Group, (c) the Localism Group and (d) the Strategy and Programme Team in his Department.

Bob Neill: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The Localism Group maintains the Localism Group Strategic Risk Register and the Strategy and programme Team maintain the Strategy and Programme Team Directorate Risk Register. The Neighbourhoods Group and Finance and Corporate Services Group do not maintain a risk register at group level and it is not a requirement of our risk management policy to maintain a register at group level.

Travel

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many journeys (a) Ministers and (b) officials from his Department made by (i) train, (ii) coach and (iii) Government car in an official capacity in each of the last six months.

Bob Neill: In the six month period ending March 2012 there have been:
	(i) 8,868 journeys by train, 92 of which were undertaken by Ministers,
	(ii) No journeys by coach,
	(iii) 522 journeys by official car, 514 by Ministers and 8 by officials.
	The number of journeys undertaken by official car is drawn from usage of the Government Car and Dispatch Agency pool car service. Information relating to individual journeys and mileage undertaken by the Department's allocated car is not held.
	This Government have taken a series of steps to reduce the cost of ministerial travel. Departmental spend with the Government Car and Despatch Agency has been reduced from £488,276 from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010, to £268,953 from 13 May 2010 to 31 March 2011.

Vacancies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many job vacancies there were for (a) staff posts and (b) senior civil service posts in his Department on 31 March (i) 2010, (ii) 2011 and (iii) 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill: The Department for Communities and Local Government does not keep a central record of job vacancies as responsibility for recruitment lies with individual line managers.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to answer question 104641 on zero-carbon homes.

Andrew Stunell: Question 104641 was answered on 24 April 2012, Official Report, column 785W.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to answer Question 104642 on public sector land.

Grant Shapps: Question 104642 was answered on 24 April 2012, Official Report, column 787W.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  when he plans to answer question 104120 on affordable housing;
	(2)  when he plans to answer question 104121 on affordable housing.

Grant Shapps: Questions 104120 and 104121 have been answered today.

TRANSPORT

Dual Carriageways

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many miles of single carriageway A-roads were dualled between May (a) 1997 and (b) 2010.

Michael Penning: The Highways Agency dualled 64 miles of single carriageway, major A roads between May 2002 and May 2010.
	Note s :
	1. The HA is only responsible for managing the strategic road network in England.
	2. The figure above relates only to major A-road improvements delivered by the Highways Agency (HA).
	3. The HA only holds details of major A-road improvement schemes completed since May 2002.
	4. The figure only includes HA major schemes improvements. Data are not held centrally for HA minor schemes improvements.
	5. Only schemes where the A-road has been dualled in both directions are included. The miles quoted are total scheme lengths.

E-mail

John Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what her policy is on the period for which emails sent and received by (a) Ministers, (b) officials, and (c) special advisers in her Department are retained; and whether such emails are recoverable from the IT systems in her Department after that period.

Norman Baker: E-mails in the Department for Transport are retained in accordance with the terms of The Public Records Act 1958 and the guidelines from the National Archive.

Liverpool Cruise Terminal

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the potential economic and employment effects on other ports and communities of permitting turnaround operations at the City of Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

Michael Penning: I have considered representations about such effects made in responses to the Department's consultation. The proposal for grant repayment itself reflects a recognition that there are material competition implications for other ports and their hinterlands.

Liverpool Cruise Terminal

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 26 January 2012, Official Report, column 26WS, on the City of Liverpool Cruise Terminal, whether the Government has sought independent advice on the repayment of public subsidy used to finance the terminal.

Michael Penning: Yes. I am considering that advice and intend to make a further announcement shortly.

Official Secrets

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether any person employed by (a) her Department, (b) the agencies and non-departmental public bodies for which her Department is responsible and (c) any private firms contracted by her Department is bound by any part of the Official Secrets Act.

Norman Baker: All Crown Servants and government contractors (as defined by Sections 12(1) and 12(2) of the Official Secrets Act 1989) are subject to the requirements of the Official Secrets Act. Upon entering the Department, all staff are made aware that they are bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act and that their actions resulting in unauthorised disclosure of official information may result in legal proceedings being taken against them.

Public Consultation

Michael Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which of her Department's consultations have been externally verified since 2007; for what reason and by whom such verification was carried out; and what the cost to the public purse was of such verification.

Norman Baker: Formal verification of compliance with the various obligations set out under the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation is normally a matter that is handled internally, in accordance with the obligation under the Code to monitor the effectiveness of consultation exercises.
	Although no central record is kept, the Department for Transport occasionally uses external verification for large complex consultations such as those conducted on Heathrow and on High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) to ensure that the processes for collating and analysing consultation responses are robust. For Heathrow, Faber Maunsell did this at a cost of under £30,000 in 2007. The HS2 consultation has used a peer review group for verification of the consultation approach. This is ongoing but the cost to date has been £3,909.60 incl. VAT. HS2 has also commissioned the Consultation Institute to undertake a review of the response analysis methodology, the cost of which was £23,760 incl. VAT.

Railways: Franchises

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what her policy is on whether a franchised service operator continues to be charged marginal track access costs when they buy out or take over an open access operator.

Theresa Villiers: Decisions on the structure and level of access charges for use of the railway network are made by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) which is independent of Government. ORR is currently reviewing the structure and level of track access charges that will apply for Network Rail's next control period from 2014 to 2019.

Railways: Franchises

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the differential in charges is for track access costs between open access operators and those rail companies who are franchised service operators.

Theresa Villiers: All train operators pay a variable track usage charge and a capacity charge which reflect the incremental costs of their use of the rail network. All operators of electric trains also pay a traction electricity charge. Franchised train operators pay an additional fixed track access charge which does not apply to open access operators. Fixed access charges are 62% of Network Rail's total track access income (ORR estimate for CP4 2009-2014).

Railways: Franchises

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many open access operator routes there are in operation in England.

Theresa Villiers: Scheduled open access passenger services operate on the following routes:
	London King's Cross to Hull (Hull Trains)
	London King's Cross to Sunderland (Grand Central Railway)
	London King's Cross to Bradford via Halifax (Grand Central Railway)
	London Paddington to Heathrow (BAA)
	Grosmont to Whitby (North Yorkshire Moors Railway).
	Other routes are used by non-regular charter trains which operate on the national network under open access rights.

Railways: Franchises

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport with reference to paragraph 4.42 of her Department's publication, Reforming our Railways: Putting the Customer First, whether open access bids that are currently in the pipeline will be given consideration.

Theresa Villiers: Decisions on the allocation of railway network capacity for open access operations are made by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) which is independent of Government. ORR makes those decisions by reference to its statutory duties under the Railways Act 1993 (as amended). The Government has no plans to alter these arrangements.

Road Signs and Markings

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of brown tourist signs on the Highways Agency managed road network are paid for (a) from the public purse and (b) by the tourist sites they relate to.

Michael Penning: All tourist signing permitted on the strategic road network should be at the expense of the applicant, so there is no financial burden on the public purse.
	The exception to this is where a road improvement scheme requires a tourist sign to be repositioned. This may be funded through the scheme cost if the destination remains eligible following the works.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Children: Maintenance

Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department takes to inform a parent with care when the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission takes a decision not to pursue the collection of child maintenance arrears and to suspend the arrears on its accounting records.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the child maintenance commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to inform a parent with care when the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission takes a decision not to pursue the collection of child maintenance arrears and to suspend the arrears on its accounting records.
	When considering the collection of child maintenance arrears due, the first step taken is to contact the parent with care to confirm that they wish the arrears to be collected. Prior to the Child Support Agency (CSA) exercising its discretionary power to temporarily or permanently suspend collection of child maintenance arrears full consideration will be given to the individual circumstances of both the case and the parties involved.
	Although ultimately the decision to suspend collection of the arrears lies with the CSA due regard will be given to any representations made by the parent with care. Additionally, the CSA must consider the welfare of any children likely to be affected by the decision to suspend collection of any child maintenance arrears.
	Whether the arrears are due wholly or partially to the parent with care, they will be contacted in either case by phone and the position will be explained to them along with potential timescales to review the suspension of arrears collection. The decision to suspend collection will also then be notified by letter to both the non-resident parent and the parent with care.
	Where the arrears are entirely due to the Secretary of State the parent with care will not be contacted in relation to the decision to suspend collection of the arrears as it will have no impact upon them.
	If a decision has been restated not to collect at that time, the arrears are then suspended on the relevant child support computer system and a review date set. If the review date is reached and the decision is at that point taken to collect then the arrears are reinstated to the client's accounts as appropriate. Collection activity will then recommence.

Children: Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the results were of the unadjusted survey data from the customer insight analysis undertaken by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system on (a) levels of future compliance and (b) use of the future statutory collection service from 2013 onwards.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the results were of the unadjusted survey data from the customer insight analysis undertaken by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system on (a) levels of future compliance and (b) use of the future statutory collection service from 2013 onwards.
	The surveys did not include any questions on expectations of future compliance for either parents with care or non-resident parents. 87% of current non-resident parents indicated that they would prefer to use maintenance direct if there was a charge to use the collection service.

Children: Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assumptions the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission made in interpreting the raw survey data from its customer insight analysis to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system in its (a) cautious and (b) optimistic estimate for the number of customers prepared to pay fees.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assumptions the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission made in interpreting the raw survey data from its customer insight analysis to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system in its (a) cautious and (b) optimistic estimate for the number of customers prepared to pay fees.
	The ‘optimistic' and ‘cautious' estimates are based on the Commission's upper and lower range estimates for the number of customers prepared to pay fees after adjusting for how it expects them to behave. The estimate of the unadjusted survey is modelled on the proportion (13 percent) of non-resident parents who replied they would use the Commission's collection service to transfer maintenance payments. The Commission believes that such a scenario is highly unlikely as some parents will demonstrate behaviour that will necessitate the use of the collection service. The Commission believes a range between 56 and 78 per cent of non-resident parents using the collection service is more realistic.
	The key assumption is therefore around the extent to which collection charging will influence behavioural change in non-resident parents and to what extent the parent with care will be flexible in receiving payments, especially as there may be initial opposition to maintenance direct on the part of the parent with care. Analysts are in the process of refining assumptions in this area and the survey results, associated analysis and assumptions will be published alongside the impact assessment covering charging and case closure later this year.

Children: Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) parents with care and (b) non- resident parents were consulted as part of the customer insight analysis undertaken by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) parents with care and (b) non-resident parents were consulted as part of the customer insight analysis undertaken by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission to determine the behavioural impact of the introduction of fees to use the future statutory child maintenance system.
	The quantitative element of the insight work achieved completed surveys from 2549 parents with care and 1334 non-resident parents. In addition, focus groups were held with 50 parents with care and 33 non-resident parents.

Children: Maintenance

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to page 11 of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission's delivery plan for 2011-12, what interventions were tested by the Child Maintenance Options Service during the course of the year which were designed to help parents make family-based arrangements; and when he expects to publish the evidence gathered as a result of those interventions concerning what works in encouraging successful family-based agreements on child maintenance.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the child maintenance commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 11 of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission's delivery plan for 2011-12, what interventions were tested by the Child Maintenance Options Service during the course of the year which were designed to help parents make family-based arrangements; and when he expects to publish the evidence gathered as a result of those interventions concerning what works in encouraging successful family-based agreements on child maintenance.
	The Child Maintenance Options service has been piloting a new approach to help parents overcome the barriers they may face in making effective family-based arrangements, this includes a new range of guides aimed at helping parents to collaborate and reach decisions together on a range of issues, in the best interests of their children. The new guides range from practical to emotional issues parents may face on separation such as dealing with a new partner, practical information for new single parents and co-parenting without conflict.
	Customer feedback on the new guides has now been completed and will form part of the overall internal evaluation of the pilot due in early May which will inform future service developments to encourage, more parents to collaborate.

Children: Maintenance

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information the Child Support Agency holds on the proportion of parents with care each year that transfer from a maintenance direct arrangement to the Child Support Agency's collection service; and how many parents with care switched from a maintenance direct arrangement to using the Child Support Agency's collection service in 2011-12.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information the Child Support Agency holds on the proportion of parents with care each year that transfer from a maintenance direct arrangement to the Child Support Agency's collection service; and how many parents with care switched from a maintenance direct arrangement to using the Child Support Agency's collection service in 2011-12.
	As at December 2010, there were 171,800 maintenance direct cases. 11,400 (7%) of these had a liability to pay maintenance via the CSA collection service at least once in the year between December 2010 and December 2011.

Disability Living Allowance

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of people were in receipt of the (a) care and (b) mobility component of disability living allowance in (i) Wrexham constituency, (ii) Wales and (iii) the UK in the latest period for which figures are available.

Maria Miller: The information requested is contained in the following table.
	
		
			 Number and proportion of people in Wrexham constituency, Wales and the UK in receipt of the care and mobility component of disability living allowance (DLA): August 2011 
			  Total in receipt of DLA Number in receipt of care component Percentage of the population in receipt of care component Number in receipt of mobility component Percentage of the population in receipt of mobility component 
			 Great Britain/Abroad 3,222,690 2,751,000 4.5 2,803,190 4.6 
			 Wales 243,350 203,180 6.8 213,060 7.1 
			 Wrexham Parliamentary Constituency 5,210 4,340 6.2 4,550 6.5 
			 Notes: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10, percentages to one decimal place. 2. Figures show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and excludes people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. 3. DLA care and mobility components can be paid together or on their own. 4. These data are available on the Departments tabulation tool at: http://83.244.183.180/100pc/dla/tabtool_dla.html 5. Northern Ireland data are the responsibility of the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland. For Northern Ireland statistics go to: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research.htm 6. Population figures are mid year 2010 and are available on the ONS website at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/search/index.html?pageSize=50&newquery=population+estimates+great+britain+2010 Source: DWP Information, Governance and Security Directorate, 100%WPLS.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Graham Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of 16 and 17-year-olds who are not in education, employment, or training he expects to meet his eligibility criteria of holding no GCSEs at grades A to C for support as part of the Youth Contract; and what steps he is taking to make provision for those who do not meet his criteria and wish to access learning and work.

Tim Loughton: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Education.
	We expect around 36% of 16 and 17-year-olds NEET nationally to meet the eligibility criteria of holding no GCSEs at grades A* to C.
	We were clear in “Building Engagement, Building Futures” that this programme is one element of our overall plans to reach full participation in education and training for 16 to 17-year-olds. The Department is providing a record investment in education and training places for 16 to 19-year-olds of £7.5 billion in 2012-13. Local authorities have clear statutory duties to ensure that there is sufficient, suitable education and training provision to meet young people's needs, and to support them to participate. This support for young people NEET is funded from the Early Intervention Grant, which is worth over £2.3 billion in 2012-13.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason a single national fund has been established for wage subsidies payable under the Youth Contract rather than the subsidies being made available on the basis of likely need in each provider's area.

Chris Grayling: Take-up of the new wage incentive will be driven by employer demand. We do not want to limit or restrict take-up of the wage incentive and we have therefore not imposed artificial limits on our Work programme providers. The Department will however monitor the take-up of the wage incentive closely and we are committed to formally reviewing Youth Contract progress in the summer.

Housing Benefit

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to his Department's impact assessment entitled Under-occupation of social housing, whether the application of private rented sector size criteria to the social rented sector will include the criterion that an individual under 35 years should live in a property with shared facilities; what discussions he has had on the extension of this aspect of private rented sector size criteria to the social rented sector; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: The local housing allowance size criteria will be applied to the social rented sector in establishing under-occupancy. The shared accommodation rate is not part of the size criteria and so will not apply to the under-occupation measure for claimants in the social rented sector.

Housing Benefit: Glasgow

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many in-work households were in receipt of housing benefit in (a) the City of Glasgow and (b) Glasgow North constituency in (i) 2009, (ii) 2010 and (iii) 2011.

Steve Webb: The economic status of all HB recipients is not available. Information is only available for those HB recipients whose claim is not passported: that is for those who do not receive either income support, jobseeker’s allowance (income-based), employment and support allowance (income based), or pension credit (guaranteed credit). A small proportion of the passported cases will be in part-time employment. The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Housing benefit recipients, non-passported and in employment—City of Glasgow local authority, December 2009-December 2011 
			  Total HB recipients All non-passported Non-passported, of which in employment 
			 December 2011 90,150 21,650 8,040 
			 December 2010 90,560 20,760 7,040 
			 December 2009 89,210 19,390 5,460 
			 Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. Data is rounded to the nearest 10. 4. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data is available monthly from November 2008 and December 2011 is the most recent available. 5. Passported status does not include recipients with unknown passported status. 6. This data refers to people receiving housing benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or partner of claimant (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported benefits who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 7. Information is not available for housing benefit recipients at parliamentary constituency level each month from November 2008. However the Department has published a one-off analysis on housing benefit case loads at parliamentary constituency level for January 2011 only, on its website at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hb_ctb_parlc_jan11.xls Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE).

National Insurance Credits

Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  whether parents who receive national insurance credits linked to child benefit will no longer receive those credits if their child benefit is withdrawn on the basis of their household income;
	(2)  by what means he plans to determine eligibility for national insurance credits linked to child benefit under his proposed changes to child benefit.

Steve Webb: National insurance credits which protect a person's future entitlement to basic state pension and the state second pension will remain available for those claiming child benefit for a child under 12.
	Parents and carers who get national insurance credits linked to them claiming child benefit will not lose them on the basis of their household income even if they choose not to receive the actual payments or their partner has to pay the new tax charge.
	The introduction of the tax charge will not affect a person's right to claim child benefit.
	Parents and carers will have two options to safeguard their state pension, which will be made clear on the child benefit claim form:
	they can claim child benefit, receive the payments and, if liable, they or their partner can pay the new tax charge; or
	they can claim child benefit to establish entitlement to the credits but choose not to receive the actual payments; this means that neither they nor their partner will be liable to pay the new tax charge.

New Enterprise Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost of extending the New Enterprise Allowance to participants in the work programme; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: No estimate has been made of the cost of extending the New Enterprise Allowance to participants in the Work programme because I have no plans to do this. A core principle of the Work programme is that providers are free to offer the interventions they feel are right for the individual, at the right time. Providers can offer self-employment support if they wish to do so, but this would be outside of the New Enterprise Allowance programme operated by Jobcentre Plus.

Pensioners: Council Tax Benefits

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people in receipt of a state pension who became ineligible for council tax benefit as a result of the recent increase in the state pension.

Steve Webb: The information is not available.

Pensioners: Postage Stamps

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions he has had with Royal Mail on its concessionary scheme for pensioners to purchase stamps at Christmas.

Steve Webb: There have been no discussions between Ministers and Royal Mail on this issue. However, a number of meetings at official level have taken place.

Remploy

Frank Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make it his policy that the Government will meet any liabilities in the Remploy Pension Fund.

Maria Miller: The reforms of Remploy have not affected the security of member benefits. While Remploy continues it will continue to fulfil its employer's obligations to the scheme as usual. If Remploy is to leave Government then, as promised in the 7 March announcement, the Department will fully protect all Remploy Pension Scheme members' accrued benefits.
	The Government has no intention that the reforms will lead to a wind up of the Remploy Pension Scheme. If Remploy were to leave Government control at the end of the process, the pension scheme would have to close and member benefits would be fully protected as mentioned previously. The Government will work closely with Remploy and the Pension Scheme Trustees to ensure that the scheme could continue to be run as a closed scheme.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in light of proposed changes to welfare benefits funding, what assessment he has made of the possibility of disabled people being unable to afford their care and of the cost to local authorities of providing such care.

Maria Miller: The Government spends £40 billion supporting disabled people through services and benefits. personal independence payment is being designed to ensure that those who face the greatest barriers to living an independent life will be in receipt of a package of support that recognises the individual's needs. In the spending review, Government recognised the pressures on the adult social care system within a challenging settlement for local government, and took the decision to allocate an additional £7.2 billion to the system over the four years to 2014-15 to support local authorities in delivering social care..
	As part of the reform of DLA and introduction of personal independence payment for people aged 16 to 64 from April 2013, my Department is continuing to work with the Department of Health and local authorities to ensure that disabled people continue to have access to relevant support.
	Our October 2011 Impact Assessment considered income and health among other impacts. We will publish more information when it becomes available. Some impacts will be difficult to estimate however, for example the Department does not monitor what claimants spend the benefit on and there are no plans to do so in future. Reforms are designed to ensure that those claimants who face the greatest barriers to living full, active and independent lives continue to receive the right levels of support.

State Retirement Pensions

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of (a) men and (b) women over retirement age (i) did not qualify for a national insurance retirement pension and (ii) drew a reduced retirement pension in each of the last 30 years; what factors in a claimant's contributory record accounted for this; and what assessment he has made of trends in these factors in that period.

Steve Webb: The information requested is only available from the year 2000 onwards.
	
		
			 Proportion of people over state pension age in Great Britain who (i) did not receive a basic state pension (BSP) (ii) received a reduced BSP 
			 Percentage 
			  (a) Men (b) Women 
			  (i) No BSP (ii) Reduced BSP (i) No BSP (ii) Reduced BSP 
			 2000 2 8 6 45 
			 2001 2 8 6 46 
			 2002 2 9 6 47 
			 2003 2 10 6 47 
			 2004 2 10 6 48 
			 2005 3 11 6 49 
			 2006 3 11 6 49 
			 2007 3 11 6 49 
			 2008 3 12 6 50 
			 2009 4 12 7 49 
			 2010 4 13 6 50 
			 2011 4 13 5 49 
			 Notes: 1. Data is for Great Britain and relates to basic state pension (BSP) only. 2. Reduced BSP means between 1 and 99% of the full rate of BSP. 3. The relevant information from the sample of administrative data was not collected before September 1999. 4. The sample of administrative data is available here: http://83.244.183.180/5pc/tabtool.html 5. Figures from the sample of administrative data were taken at March of the relevant year; the population data are mid-year estimates. 6. Figures exclude people deferring their state pension. 7. The eligibility conditions for basic state pension were reformed in April 2010. The first and second contribution conditions were withdrawn and the number of qualifying years required for a full basic state pension was reduced to 30. Source: DWP calculations based on 5% sample administrative data and Office for National Statistics population figures. 
		
	
	The Department has published research investigating the gaps in individuals' national insurance (NI) records. It found that there is no single activity that explains why the majority of people have gaps in their NI records. The research is available here:
	http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/WP61.pdf

Unemployment: Speech Therapy

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of qualified speech therapists who are unemployed.

Nick Hurd: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
	The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated April 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate he has made of the number of qualified speech therapists who are unemployed. 105241
	Estimates of the number of unemployed people are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Unfortunately estimates of those qualified as speech therapists are not available.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate he has made of the cost of transitional protection under universal credit in each year up to 2015.

Chris Grayling: We will offer transitional protection to universal credit recipients, which will ensure that households will not receive less as a result of their move to universal credit, where circumstances have remained the same. The overall cost of transitional protection in each year up to 2015 and beyond is subject to the build-up of universal credit caseload and the final policy design. The detailed approach to managing the build-up of universal credit case loads is under development.
	The cost of transitional protection is included within the £2 billion spending envelope allocated for the introduction of universal credit over the spending review period.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Assets

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to his answer of 23 March 2011, Official Report, columns 115-16W, on departmental assets, what receipts from the sale of regional development agency assets are anticipated in his Department's budget for (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14; and what proportion of his Department's budget they represent in each year.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 24 April 2012
	The vast majority of regional development agency (RDA) land and property assets (in terms of value) transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency on 19 September 2011 for management and development in accordance with the stewardship arrangement described in my statement of 14 September 2011, Official Report, column 45WS. Other assets transferred to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) during 2011-12. BIS has no plans to sell former RDA assets during the course of 2012-13 or 2013-14.

Bankruptcy: North Lanarkshire

Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many bankruptcies have occurred in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill constituency since May 2010.

Norman Lamb: Official Statistics for bankruptcies on a regional basis for the years 2010 and 2011 will be published on 16 May at 9.30 am. The published statistics will include annual figures, on a calendar year basis, down to the equivalent of local authority level; statistics at constituency level will be deposited at the House of Commons Library.
	The latest publication currently available and covering the years 2000 to 2009 is available via the following link:
	http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/otherinformation/statistics/regionalstatisticsmenu.htm

Biofuels

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has any plans for UK Trade and Investment missions focusing on sustainable biofuels.

Mark Prisk: UK Trade & Investment has no plans at present to conduct any trade missions focusing on biofuels.
	Although UKTI recognise the low carbon value of the biofuels industry, there is not a significant export focused customer base for UKTI services. The UK imports 80% of its biofuels. UKTI are focused on the higher value export activity related to renewable energy particularly offshore wind.

Business: Government Assistance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 10 February 2011, Official Report, columns 385-6W, on business: Government assistance, what the value of awards made by the Selective Finance for Investment in England and the Grant for Business Investment was in (a) Newcastle and (b) England in each year from 2005-06 to 2009-10.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 25 April 2012
	The total value of offers accepted under the Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE) and the Grant for Business Investment (GBI) schemes from 2005-06 to 2009-10 in (a) Newcastle and (b) England, is set out as follows. For "Newcastle" we have used the three Newcastle upon Tyne parliamentary constituencies.
	
		
			 £ million 
			  Newcastle England 
			 2005-06 2.3 85.0 
			 2006-07 3.5 78.9 
			 2007-08 0.93 81.6 
			 2008-09 0.89 69.4 
			 2009-10 3.0 80.3

Business: Regulation

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he plans to revise the system of regulation of businesses employing fewer than five people.

Mark Prisk: The Government recognises the particular burden that new regulation places on the smallest businesses.
	In order to support growth and establish a period of increased regulatory stability for these businesses the Government introduced a moratorium on new domestic regulation for micro-businesses and start-ups from 1 April 2011.
	The moratorium applies to all new domestic regulation within the scope of One-in, One-out that affect businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and which is intended to come into force before 31 March 2014.
	The Government has no plans to revise the moratorium at the present time.

Business: United Arab Emirates

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to encourage collaboration and networking of UK businesses with international partners in the United Arab Emirates.

Mark Prisk: The economic relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a critically important one from which both countries derive considerable benefits. Given this, we are making strenuous efforts to ensure UK businesses receive the support they need to succeed in this market. Recent high level commercial initiatives, including the UK-UAE CEO Forum, have given a further significant boost to the bilateral relationship.
	The UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) team in the UAE deal with about 60 different British business groups every year and with over 2,000 enquiries from UK businesses wanting to do business there.

Consultants

Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on efficiency and reform in Government corporate functions through shared service centres, HC 1790, which management consultants were involved in (a) setting up and (b) operation of the shared service centre project for his Department.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 23 April 2012
	A number of management consultancies were involved in the project to set up the shared service centre and in subsequent reviews. Activa Consulting and Deloitte were appointed by the Research Council in 2006 to assist the requirements-gathering phase of the project. In October 2006 Impact Plus were appointed to deliver the implementation of shared services. In May 2009 a tender was let appointing PA Consulting to assist in defining the shared service transition process. The project appointed Fujitsu in August 2007 to put in place the information and communication technologies (ICT) systems to underpin the shared service centre. Fujitsu subcontracted the work to Oracle. The contract with Fujitsu was terminated in November 2009 when Oracle were appointed. In October 2010 Gartner were appointed to undertake a review of the ICT systems. Following the publication of the National Audit Office Value for Money report in 2011, PricewaterhouseCoopers were commissioned to identify the challenges in respect of the shared service centre achieving full stability and the shared service centres readiness for expansion. Deloitte have been involved at various stages providing audit and assurance reviews of the project, processes and operations.

Economic Growth

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 4 May 2011, Official Report, column 768W, on economic growth, whether successful outcome targets have been set for the firms awarded contracts as service providers for Business Coaching for Growth.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 25 April 2012
	The contract for the delivery of Business Coaching for Growth was awarded to the Coaching for Growth Consortium in January this year. The Coaching for Growth Consortium is led by Grant Thornton (prime contractor) and comprises Winning Pitch, Oxford Innovation, Pera and seven other local delivery partners. I can confirm that these providers have been set targets for delivering the growth outcomes that we want to see for small businesses from Business Coaching for Growth; these targets are enshrined in the contract.

Economic Growth: EU Law

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 4 May 2011, Official Report, column 769W, on economic growth: EU law, whether he has yet published the Government's findings on ways to improve growth opportunities for UK business.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 25 April 2012
	The Government published the report “Let's get down to business: Smart regulation, more growth, better Europe” in November 2011. This sets out the findings of the Government's work with four companies, Balfour Beatty, GSK, Kingfisher and Tribeka, to find ways to improve European growth opportunities for UK businesses. The report was deposited in the Library of the House and can also be found at:
	http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/better-regulation/docs/l/11-1414-lets-get-down-to-business-smart-regulation.pdf
	The Government also published in March 2012 an implementation update showing progress against the wide-ranging commitments of the growth review. This is available at:
	http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/growth/docs/12-p126a-growth-implementation-update-march-2012.pdf

EU Action

David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what meetings (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in his Department have attended at an institution of the EU outside the UK since 12 May 2012.

Norman Lamb: The information is as follows:
	(a) BIS Ministers have attended the following meetings with EU institutions outside of the UK since 12 May 2010:
	
		
			  Meetings 
			 30 September 2010 Informal Competition Council 
			 5 October 2011 European Commissioners to discuss European issues 
			 26 November 2010 EU Competitiveness Council 
			 24-26 November 2011 EU Cohesion meeting 
			 15-16 December 2011 EU Cohesion meeting 
			 2-3 February 2012 Informal Competition Council 
			 10 September 2010 Foreign Affairs/Trade Council 
			 13 May 2011 Foreign Affairs/Trade Council 
			 30 May 2011 Competitiveness Council 
			 13 July 2011 European Commissioner/EU Parliament 
		
	
	
		
			 26 September 2011 Foreign Affairs/Trade Council 
			 29 September 2011 Competitiveness Council 
			 17 November 2011 UK/EU Commission Think Tank Event 
			 14 December 2011 Foreign Affairs/Trade Council 
			 17 February 2012 Employment, Social Policy. Health and Consumer Affairs Council 
			 20 February 2012 Competitiveness Council 
			 16 March 2012 Foreign Affairs/Trade Council 
			 27 June 2011 European Parliament 
		
	
	(b) Special advisers have not attended meetings with any EU institution outside of the UK since 12 May 2010
	(c) The information regarding officials could be provided only at disproportionate costs.

Exports: Angola

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 21 March 2012, Official Report, column 750W, if he will provide a breakdown of the type of goods exported to Angola in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011.

Mark Prisk: The following table shows the top 10 types of goods exported to Angola in 2010 and 2011 by SITC-2 digit code.
	
		
			  Value (£ million) 
			 2011  
			 General industrial machinery and equipment and machine parts 130 
			 Machinery specialized for particular industries 46 
			 Professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus 33 
			 Iron and steel 29 
			 Power generating machinery and equipment 26 
			 Manufactures of metal 24 
			 Road vehicles (including air cushion vehicles) 16 
			 Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances and electrical parts thereof 12 
			 Beverages 11 
			 Chemical materials and products 9 
			   
			 2010  
			 General industrial machinery and equipment and machine parts 206 
			 Iron and steel 112 
			 Machinery specialized for particular industries 65 
			 Professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus 36 
			 Manufactures of metal 19 
			 Power generating machinery and equipment 18 
			 Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances and electrical parts thereof 13 
			 Road vehicles (including air cushion vehicles) 9 
		
	
	
		
			 Chemical materials and products 9 
			 Metalworking machinery 6 
			 Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics

Government Departments: Private Sector

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 280W, on Government departments: private sector, if he will publish the recommendations of Lord Heseltine's review in full; if he will make it his policy to (a) consider and (b) implement the recommendations of the report prior to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn Statement; and what mechanisms have been put in place for hon. Members to contribute to Lord Heseltine's review.

Norman Lamb: The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), wrote to Lord Heseltine 19 March 2012, and I am pleased to say that this important review is fully under way and that all Departments are engaged with its ambitious programme of work. It is, however, a completely independent review, and Lord Heseltine himself is in the process of deciding whom it is practical and appropriate for him to meet in the time available. If hon. Members are keen to contribute I would recommend that they contact the review team, based in the Department, in the first instance.
	The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State are looking forward to receiving the findings of the review, which will no doubt be interesting and thought-provoking. It is too early to speculate on what ought to be the nature and timing of the Government's response to the findings, but I will update hon. Members on this when the review is complete.

Higher Education: Access

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to consult students' unions on institutional access agreements.

David Willetts: This is a matter for the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education. In his latest guidance to institutions on producing access agreements for 2013/14, the director has made it a requirement that there is a statement in each access agreement on the extent to which the institution has consulted with students, including student unions, in its development. The director also encourages student unions to engage fully in the development of the access agreement and to continue to provide him with feedback on their experiences.

Higher Education: Access

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what discussions his Department has had with the Office for Fair Access on fee waivers and institutional access agreements for undergraduate courses.

David Willetts: Formal guidance from the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), and me on 10 February 2011 set out for the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education our expectations about how he should approach the approval and monitoring of new access agreements from those institutions intending to charge more than the basic amount for tuition fees. In regard to encouraging the use of financial waivers, the guidance made clear that a waiver has the effect of reducing the cost of borrowing to both the public purse and the student. The Office for Fair Access will therefore monitor closely the impact of fee waivers and bursaries and plans to conduct research and analysis to see if one method of financial support is more effective than another in supporting fair access to higher education. Institutions are also encouraged by the director to monitor and evaluate the impact of their own financial support arrangements on access and, where necessary, student retention.

Higher Education: Community Development

Julie Hilling: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  what the (a) gender, (b) age and (c) ethnic composition was of students admitted to youth and community work degree courses offering Joint Negotiating Committee qualifications in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11 and (iii) 2011-12;
	(2)  how many places were available on degree level youth and community work courses in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12; and how many places are available in 2012-13.

David Willetts: Information is not held centrally on the number and profile of students admitted to youth and community work degree courses and recognised by the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) as conferring professionally qualified status.
	The National Youth Agency published on their website a list of 40 universities or colleges of HE who provide qualifications recognised by the JNC and this can be seen on the following:
	http://nya.org.uk/dynamic_files/Current%20Courses%20-%20Aug%202011.pdf
	These Higher Education qualifications reflect different occupational needs and have a wide range of course titles.

Higher Education: Standards

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he issues guidance to providers wishing to have higher education courses designated on due diligence; and if he will publish any such guidance.

David Willetts: BIS officials have recently started writing to new providers outlining the purpose of the due diligence checks and seeking further information from the providers to inform the checks. This information is currently being incorporated into the Specific Designation Application Pack which will be reissued shortly.

Higher Education: Standards

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what differences exist between Quality Assurance Agency audits of higher education institutions and his recently introduced due diligence checks on designated higher education providers.

David Willetts: The Quality Assurance Agency carries out institutional reviews of universities and other higher education institutions in England and Northern Ireland. The core aim of institutional reviews is to examine whether universities and higher education institutions provide higher education qualifications of an appropriate academic standard and a student experience of acceptable quality and whether they exercise their legal powers to award degrees (where relevant) in a proper manner. The reviews are focused on the education provision.
	The due diligence checks undertaken on organisations applying for specific designation, consider the management, governance, and medium term financial sustainability of the organisation. These specific checks do not consider the quality of the education provided as this is covered by other processes. The checks are important to ensure that both the student interest and potential public investment is protected.

Higher Education: Standards

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will consider using Quality Assurance Agency checks in place of his recently introduced due diligence checks on designated higher education providers.

David Willetts: We set out in the Higher Education White Paper and the subsequent Technical Consultation document, our intention that all providers that access student support funding will, in future, be subject to the same standards for quality, dispute resolution, information, access (if charging above the basic tuition charge), financial sustainability, reformed student number controls and tuition charge caps.
	Further details on how we plan to take forward our proposals will be published in due course.

Land: Registration

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 25 January 2012, Official Report, columns 309-10W, on land registration, which five UK regions have the highest proportion of land that is unregistered; how much that proportion is in each case; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: Land Registry is responsible for land registration in England and Wales only. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own separate Registry's. Land in England and Wales is registered by administrative county name and not by regions. The figures, which are approximate, include all freehold indexings where the freehold is classed as absolute, possessory, qualified or scheme title. Urban areas have a high level of registration and it is in rural areas where land tends to remain unregistered.
	The information covering England and Wales has been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Manufacturing Industries

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the findings of the report entitled Public perceptions of manufacturing and efforts to rebalance the UK economy by the Centre for Industry and Government and the University of Cambridge; if he will implement the publication's recommendations on the (a) image of manufacturing, (b) perception of the sector as low-wage and (c) Government's policy on picking winners; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: I have seen the report and welcome its findings. In addition to the Government's investment in UK Manufacturing we believe it is important to celebrate the manufacturing success in this country; its capability and competitive standing. It is for this reason we launched Make it in Great Britain to challenge outdated perceptions of manufacturing, encourage young people to see manufacturing, engineering and design as worthwhile career paths and demonstrate the role manufacturing can play in the long-term growth of the UK economy.
	The Government makes choices every day which affect the economy and individual sectors. It is committed to ensuring sustained, high-level communication between industry and Government to align activities and develop and secure agreement on long-term strategies. This sustained dialogue is necessary to generate stronger and more competitive supply chains, higher level skills, and a commercial environment in which strategic sectors remain competitive.

Overseas Trade: Caribbean

David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the statement of 25 January 2012, Official Report, column 17WS, on Brazil and the Caribbean (Foreign Secretary visit), what plans his Department has to engage with the Caribbean business community in the UK who export to and import from the Caribbean; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: Government support and advice for companies pursuing international trade is provided through UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), an organ of both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. UKTI’s teams based in the Caribbean, and in the parts of the UK with significant Caribbean diaspora, regularly provide services to the Caribbean business community in the UK in order to help them develop their international business. Moreover, UKTI has excellent working relations with stakeholder bodies such as the Caribbean Council and counterpart organisations such as the Caribbean Export Development Agency through which business opportunities in both markets are promoted. It was with the latter that UKTI recently organised "Break Point", a Dragons' Den style competition for Caribbean companies for which the prize is a trip to the UK to develop their export strategies.
	The Government agreed at the UK-Caribbean Ministerial Forum in January to explore all avenues, including the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), to improve access for Caribbean exports of goods and services, via policy frameworks. These include taking concrete steps, inter alia, to attain international standards, reduce bureaucracy, facilitate business travel, and increase levels of innovation, all of which will improve the prospects of UK Caribbean businesses operating in the region. This work cuts across Government, including the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Overseas Trade: Surveys

Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will respond to the findings of the British Chambers of Commerce's survey Exporting is Good For Britain but Exporters Need Skills.

John Hayes: The Government welcomes the British Chambers of Commerce's (BCC) survey "Exporting is good for Britain and exporters need skills". The Government's ambition is to have a world-class skills base that provides a consistent source of global competitive advantage returning the economy to sustainable growth.
	Businesses are in the best position to understand what skills, including those for exporting, are required for their sector or industry. So we are making sure that the skills system is not led by Government, but by employers and individuals themselves. As a Government, we are empowering them with the support and information they need to make confident choices and shape the system to deliver.
	Through the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), Government helps UK based companies gain the skills needed to succeed in the global economy through a range of programmes, under their Helping Your Business Grow Internationally trade development product.
	Excellent leadership and management skills lie at the heart of outstanding business performance, so we have prioritised funding for these skills for SMEs who demonstrate the potential for growth. Building their capability and confidence to move and expand into the export market. Aligned with Leadership and Management support, Business Coaching for Growth will provide strategic advice, coaching mentoring and access to knowledge networks to help them achieve their growth potential.

Postgraduate Education

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes to postgraduate fees on levels of participation in higher education.

David Willetts: Postgraduate fee levels are determined locally by higher education institutions. No assessment has been made of the potential effect of changes to postgraduate fees on levels of participation in higher education.
	There have been arrangements made to monitor developments in the postgraduate market as a result of changes in undergraduate tuition fees. We have asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to review participation in postgraduate study, as part of a longer term assessment and evaluation of the impact of funding changes. Until the findings from this become clear, we have asked HEFCE, through the grant letter, to take steps as far as possible to support postgraduate provision. As a first step in 2012/13 HEFCE are providing additional funding for taught postgraduate students of £39 million. HEFCE are currently consulting on the future support for postgraduate teaching, as part of their consultation on the future of grant funding from 2013/14 onwards.

Postgraduate Education

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department has undertaken to evaluate the anticipated effect on postgraduate numbers, undertaking both postgraduate taught degrees and research degrees arising from changes in student visa regulations.

David Willetts: It is too early to tell whether the reforms to the student visa regulations will affect the numbers of international students undertaking postgraduate degrees. There is no centralised body equivalent to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) through which we can monitor applications for postgraduate courses. Information on postgraduate enrolments at UK Higher Education Institutions for the 2011/12 academic year will become available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in January 2013.
	The purpose of the new student visa route is to address past abuses of the visa system by creating controls that make study applications less attractive to those who are not genuine students, while welcoming genuine students to the UK. Therefore, international students studying postgraduate taught courses and research degrees will continue to be welcomed under the student route.

Postgraduate Education: Finance

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans he has for funding of postgraduate education.

David Willetts: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills provides funding to the Research Councils and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to support postgraduate education.
	The Research Councils support around 19,000 doctoral students around the UK and plan to invest around £340 million in postgraduate education during 2012-13.
	HEFCE provides funding to higher education institutions (HEIs) in England. This funding contributes to meet some of the costs incurred by HEIs through providing taught postgraduate courses and for supervising students in the first three years of a postgraduate research degree programme. HEFCE is increasing provision for research degree programme supervision costs in 2012-13 to £240 million (from £205 million in 2011-12). HEFCE allocation in relation to taught postgraduate provision in 2012-13 is being maintained at similar levels to 2011-12, and estimated at £135 million for 2012-13.

Postgraduate Education: Overseas Students

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) EU national and (b) international postgraduate students there have been on (i) taught and (ii) research degrees in each subject in each academic year since 2009-10.

David Willetts: The latest available information on postgraduate enrolments at UK higher education institutions by domicile, level of study and subject area for the academic years 2009/10 and 2010/11 will be placed in the Libraries of the House. Information on postgraduate enrolments at UK higher education institutions for the 2011/12 academic year will become available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in January 2013.

Procurement: Human Rights

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent discussions representatives of his Department have had with the devolved assemblies on human rights and procurement.

Francis Maude: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
	Responsibility for public procurement is devolved to the national administrations but responsibility for overall UK public procurement policy rests with the Cabinet Office. My officials meet regularly with those from the relevant Departments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to discuss a range of matters related to public procurement. The Cabinet Office has no record of meetings that specifically discussed procurement and human rights.

Regional Growth Fund

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what methodology the Independent Advisory Panel on the Regional Growth Fund uses to assess how bidders to the Fund meet the six criteria specified in the Fund's application form.

Mark Prisk: In line with principles set out in the Green Book, Regional Growth Fund bids were assessed on a standardised basis. Metrics related to project location, employment impact and private sector leverage were considered alongside qualitative factors such as wider strategic fit.

Regional Growth Fund

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the total cost of the due diligence process on successful bidders from the first two rounds of the Regional Growth Fund.

Mark Prisk: On the basis of the due diligence reports that have been completed to date, it is estimated that the total cost of due diligence carried out with respect to the first two rounds of the Regional Growth Fund will be in the range of £10 million to £20 million.

Students: Finance

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the take-up of career development loans has been by postgraduate students undertaking postgraduate taught and research degrees in each academic year since 2009-10; how many applications have been received; how many students were granted a loan; what the average loan provided was; and whether his Department has conducted any equality impact assessment of the outcomes of such loans.

David Willetts: The Skills Funding Agency holds financial year management information on professional and career development loans (PCDL), which replaced career development loans in July 2009.
	
		
			  FY 2009-10 FY 2010-11 
			 Total number of PCDL applications 20,627 19,229 
			 Total number of PCDLs offered 12,239 8,333 
			 (and taken up) (8,320) (7,679) 
			 Approximate number of PCDLs taken up for postgraduate study (rounded) 6,400 5,700 
			 Average loan value (rounded) (£) 6,700 7,000 
		
	
	Complete data for the 2011-12 financial year is not yet available.
	The Department for Education and Skills published a skills strategy equality impact assessment in 2007 which included a section on career development loans. This can be found at:
	http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/migratedd/publications/s/sseqiafull.pdf
	A review of professional and career development loans will take place following the introduction of Government-backed fee loans in further education.

Students: Finance

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he plans to bring forward regulations on the cancellation period for student debt.

David Willetts: Regulations implementing the 30 year cancellation period for student loans issued to new students commencing their studies in September 2012 or later, will be laid in spring this year.

Students: Finance

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his policy is on the use of fee waivers in place of increased student bursaries as a support mechanism for students.

David Willetts: Institutions charging above the basic fee level must agree access agreements with the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education. In access agreements, institutions set out the financial support they will offer to disadvantaged students, including bursaries and fee waivers; the additional outreach activities they will undertake; and the measures of achievement that they have set themselves.
	In our guidance to the Director of Fair Access about access agreements issued February 2011 we suggested that the Director would want to seek to ensure that institutions themselves do not require students to take out higher loans which the institution then re-cycles into poorly targeted bursary schemes. We suggested that the Director of Fair Access might encourage the use of financial waivers that might have the effect of reducing borrowing to both the public purse and the student. In his latest guidance to institutions (19 April 2012) the Director of Fair Access has clarified his expectation that institutions, where possible, take an evidence-based approach in deciding financial support and direct their expenditure according to what has been shown to work well.
	With student finance changes coming into force from autumn 2012, the Director will closely monitor the impact of fee waivers and bursaries and plans to conduct research and analysis to see if one method of financial support is more effective than another in supporting and promoting fair access.

Students: Loans

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received on levels of customer satisfaction with the Student Loans Company.

David Willetts: The total number of ministerial correspondence cases received by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills since 2010 in relation to the Student Loans Company (SLC) is provided in the following table.
	To accurately determine how many of these correspondence cases relate to positive customer satisfaction with services received from the SLC, a detailed examination of all of the correspondence would be necessary and entail a disproportionate cost. The Department monitors customer satisfaction levels as part of regular performance reviews of the SLC.
	
		
			 Correspondence received by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and its predecessors in relation to the Student Loans Company (SLC) 
			  Number of cases 
			 2010 4,198 
			 2011 612 
			 2012 (1 January to date) 61 
			 Total 4,871

Trading Standards

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the responsibilities of the new National Trading Standards Board will be; how many staff it will have; what its budget will be; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: On 11 April I wrote to the Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Noble Lord the Shadow Spokesperson on Consumer Affairs in the House of Lords setting out the details of the Government's response to the consultation on Consumer Empowerment and Protection, published that day. Copies of those letters were placed in the Library of the House.
	The National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) will be responsible for:
	an integrated national intelligence system;
	the co-ordination of Trading Standards enforcement activity across local authority boundaries and nationally including management of enforcement databases;
	the analysis of intelligence and setting of priorities for cross-boundary enforcement;
	funding and supervision of Trading Standards teams in England and Wales and a small number of national centres of excellence;
	the maintenance and use of a national indemnity fund to support local authorities bringing large or risky cases in the national interest;
	the tasking of problematic supra-local enforcement cases within the Trading Standards network;
	the collection of better data on Trading Standards activity and the evaluation of impact; and
	reporting to BIS, and where necessary to the LGA and to Parliament, on Trading Standards activity which crosses local authority boundaries and the use of central Government funding.
	The NTSB will have a part-time Chair and small Secretariat. The detail of these posts is yet to be decided. The Chair will participate in the Strategic Intelligence, Prevention and Enforcement partnership alongside the Competition and Markets Authority, Trading Standards, the Regulated Industries Unit and the Citizens Advice service from April 2013. This will share intelligence to inform the activities of each of the partners and provide accountability for the national consumer protection system.
	In 2012/13, BIS has provided the NTSB with £9.679 million to build on local expertise and strengthen mechanisms for cross-boundary working—making it easier to catch unscrupulous traders.

UK Trade & Industry Defence and Security Organisation: Human Rights

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what human rights training UK Trade and Industry officials receive prior to posting.

Mark Prisk: All UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) staff (UK based and locally employed) who attend UKTI's corporate induction training programme are given a briefing by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) the Department responsible for business and human rights policy. In addition they are given a hard copy of the business and human rights toolkit which contains guidance from UKTI, FCO, Department for International Development (DFID) and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on human rights issues.

Young People: Greater London

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency and (b) the London borough of Bexley have expressed an interest in supporting the Youth Contract scheme.

Chris Grayling: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.
	The specific information requested is not available.
	Employers engage with us in a variety of ways and we are maximising every contact to promote the Youth Contract to ensure that we can provide close to half-a-million new opportunities for young people.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of women imprisoned for alleged crimes of zina in Afghanistan in each year from 2005 to 2011; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: We do not have national statistics on the numbers and sentences of women imprisoned in Afghanistan.
	We are aware of eight women currently in detention in Helmand provincial prison. Two of the eight women have been convicted for zina-related offences. To correct the answer given to question 103666, Official Report, column 376W. They have been sentenced to four years and thirteen (not three) months respectively.
	We do not hold annual breakdowns of Helmand statistics.

Afghanistan

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the oral answer from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of 17 April 2012, Official Report, column 155, on Afghanistan, what steps he will take in advance of the NATO summit in Chicago to ensure that full consideration is given at the summit to maintaining security for women in Afghanistan.

Alistair Burt: Officials in Kabul are in contact with their Finnish and other international and Afghan counterparts, including the Afghan Women's Network, National Democratic Institute and UN Women, on preparations for a pre-Chicago event in Kabul, which will focus on NATO implementation on UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security within ISAF. This event is being led by the Finnish delegation who work alongside the Afghan Government to take forward UNSCR 1325 among international donors in Afghanistan.
	This will provide an opportunity for Afghan women and civil society representatives to share their concerns and recommendations with Afghan security ministries in advance of the NATO Chicago summit.
	In addition, Ministers continue to have ongoing discussions with NATO partners, including most recently at the NATO Foreign and Defence Ministers' meeting in Brussels on 18-19 April, on the sustainability of the Afghan national security forces so that they will be able to continue to provide security for all Afghans. We are working to ensure that discussions at Chicago on NATO's long-term role confirm its continuing support for the rights of women and the implementation of UNSCR 1325.

Afghanistan

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2012, Official Report, column 155, on Afghanistan, with which women's organisations in Afghanistan the British embassy is working to ensure women's full participation in forthcoming elections.

Alistair Burt: The UK works with a wide range of organisations in Afghanistan to ensure women's full participation in forthcoming elections. This includes both dialogue with women's organisations such as the Afghan Women's Network and the Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children, as well as providing funding to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to work with women's civil society groups to promote female participation in future elections at a local and national level. This funding also supports mainstreaming gender activities in the IEC.

Bahrain

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the security situation in Bahrain.

Alistair Burt: Demonstrations and protests continue in Bahrain. Most are peaceful and conducted with the agreement of the Government but some of them are violent. We are advising British nationals through our travel advice that we cannot confirm where or when any such activity or resulting disruption will take place, and to maintain a high level of security awareness, exercise caution, particularly in public places and on the roads, and to avoid large crowds and demonstrations.
	We will continue to make clear to the Government of Bahrain that the civil rights of peaceful protestors and the rights of freedoms of expression and assembly must be respected, and to urge all sides to ensure that demonstrations are peaceful.

Bahrain

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the treatment of political prisoners by the Bahraini authorities.

Alistair Burt: The Government remains concerned about the Human Rights situation in Bahrain and has urged the Bahraini authorities to meet its commitments to uphold international standards in all cases. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), spoke with the Foreign Minister of Bahrain on 21 April to express the United Kingdom's concerns about the continuing unrest. We were disappointed that the Court review of a group of prisoners was postponed on 23 April, and urge the authorities to bring these cases to a conclusion quickly and transparently.

Bahrain

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions his Department has had with the government of Bahrain on reports of human rights abuses against government protestors.

Alistair Burt: We regularly raise our concerns with the Government of Bahrain and, most recently, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), discussed these with the Foreign Minister of Bahrain on 21 April. I also raised this issue with Sheikh Ahmed bin Atiyatallah Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Minister for Follow Up at the Royal Court, on 5 April during his visit to the UK. Our ambassador consistently raises this with his interlocutors at all levels across the Government, most recently with the Justice Minister.
	We will continue to make clear to the Government of Bahrain that the civil rights of peaceful opposition figures and the rights of freedoms of expression and assembly must be respected, and to urge all sides to ensure that demonstrations are peaceful. The UK will continue to encourage the Government to implement reform and urge all sides to enter in to an inclusive, constructive and realistic dialogue in order to achieve long-term sustainable stability and prosperity for Bahrain.

Bahrain

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of unrest between Sunni and Shi'ite populations in Bahrain.

Alistair Burt: As the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), made clear on 21 April, we are concerned about violence in Bahrain and call for all parties to act with restraint and air their grievances in a legitimate and peaceful manner.
	The British Government supports the reform process already under way in Bahrain and we want to help promote that reform. In particular, we encourage the Bahraini Government to take further urgent steps to implement in full the recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry published in November 2011, which includes recommendations to increase the integration of people from all communities in Bahrain into the security forces. Inter-community unrest must be addressed through an inclusive and constructive political, dialogue; we urge all sides to enter into this process in order to achieve long term stability for Bahrain.

Bahrain

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will have discussions with the Bahraini authorities on the recent civil disturbances and their reaction to them.

Alistair Burt: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Yorks (Mr Hague), spoke to the Bahraini Foreign Minister on 21 April and discussed the current situation in Bahrain. He made it clear we remain concerned about the violence in Bahrain and called for all parties to act with restraint and air their grievances in a legitimate and peaceful manner. Her Majesty's ambassador in Bahrain continues to have regular discussions with the authorities about the current situation.
	The Government supports the reform process already under way in Bahrain and we want to help promote that reform. In particular, we encourage the Bahraini Government to take further urgent steps to implement in full the recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry published in November 2011. This includes recommendations to increase the integration of people from all communities in Bahrain into the security forces. Inter-community unrest must be addressed through an inclusive and constructive political dialogue; we urge all sides to enter into this process in order to achieve long term stability for Bahrain.

Bangladesh

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with authorities in Bangladesh on the disappearance of Mr Md Ilias Ali.

Alistair Burt: We are concerned about the disappearance of Mr Ilias Ali and the British high commission in Dhaka is in contact with the authorities in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Senior officials in Dhaka have met with the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s Defence and Security Advisor and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Director General. We are urging the Bangladeshi authorities to do all they can to locate Mr Ali and to investigate the circumstances of his disappearance.

Bangladesh

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the government of Bangladesh on the ending of the caretaker government system before national elections.

Alistair Burt: Ministers and officials have had a number of conversations with Bangladeshi counterparts about democracy in Bangladesh, including the ending of the Caretaker Government system.
	The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), most recently discussed democracy in Bangladesh with the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, Dr Dipu Moni, on 16 April. The Government has consistently stated that it is for Bangladesh to decide how to manage its national elections, but it is essential that they are free, fair and peaceful.

Egypt

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with the Egyptian authorities on freedom of the press.

Alistair Burt: In a statement on 7 October 2011, I made clear the British Government's view that freedom of expression, including freedom of the media and the ability for citizens to debate issues and challenge their governments, is fundamental to building a democratic society. Our embassy in Cairo has regular contact with the Egyptian Government on freedom of expression and human rights more broadly.
	Media reform is one of the priority areas of the UK's Arab Partnership Programme in Egypt. During 2012 we will continue our support of improved standards in journalism, including investigative journalism, better access to impartial information on the political processes, and generating parliamentary and other support for a new regulatory environment for the media.

Israel: Palestinians

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the number of Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons.

Alistair Burt: The latest information held by the British consulate-general in Jerusalem indicates that the Israeli authorities are currently holding 166 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. All the children are boys; no girls are being held. Of these, 140 are in the age range 16-18 years, and 26 are under 16 years old.

Israel: Palestinians

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions officials in his Department have had with the Israeli government on the imprisonment of Palestinian members of the Palestine Legislative Council; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: Our embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the arrests of Palestinian Legislative Council Members with the Israeli authorities. Most recently, the British ambassador to Tel Aviv raised this issue with the Israeli Deputy Attorney General on 23 April. I raised our concerns regarding the arrests and the number of Palestinians currently being held under administrative detention with the Israeli ambassador to London on 23 February. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Israel: Palestinians

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on current discussions between Israeli and Palestinian representatives.

Alistair Burt: The UK continues to make regular high level representations to the Government of Israel and to the Palestinians on the urgency of making progress towards a two-state solution. We welcome the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and a Palestinian delegation on 17 April.
	We continue to urge both sides to show the political leadership and courage needed to achieve a negotiated solution.

Libya

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the Libyan government's relations with (a) the EU and (b) NATO.

Alistair Burt: The EU has established a mission in Tripoli and is providing support to the Libyan Transitional Government in a number of key areas including the media sector, civil society and border management. The EU and Libya have also agreed to hold a high level meeting after elections in Libya in the summer to discuss next steps in the relationship. The Libyan Transitional Government has also engaged with NATO. Libya was invited to—and attended—the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue Policy Advisory Group meeting in Rabat in March.

Libya

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had on increasing oil production in Libya in the last three months.

Alistair Burt: The British embassy in Tripoli has been in regular contact with the relevant Libyan ministries and interested companies. Libyan oil production has made a strong recovery since the end of the conflict. The Libyan National Oil Corporation has announced that production is now at 1.48 million barrels per day compared with 1.7 mb/d pre-conflict. Our assessment is that a return to pre-conflict levels of production will require the full return to Libya of international oil and service companies. A number of major companies are now evaluating that return and several are in discussion with the National Oil Corporation.

Malawi

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is on the appointment of a new high commissioner to Malawi.

Henry Bellingham: I refer to the statement made by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) to the House on 24 April 2012, Official Report, column 36WS.
	Following the unwarranted decision to expel our high commissioner in April last year, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), made it clear that a new high commissioner would not be appointed until he could be confident that he or she would be allowed to go about his or her business without hindrance or harassment.
	We have monitored developments closely over the intervening period and welcome the formal rescinding of the expulsion order. Following the death of President Mutharika, positive discussions have taken place between myself and President Banda and I was encouraged by her commitment to address the serious challenges that Malawi faces. In view of these developments we have decided that a new high commissioner to Malawi should now be appointed. The Prime Minister has conveyed this decision to President Banda.

Middle East

Conor Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to condemn all instances of religious persecution in the Middle East and to emphasise the importance of religious tolerance.

Alistair Burt: We are committed to promoting the rights of all religious groups in the middle east region. We will continue to highlight and condemn all instances of violence and discrimination against individuals and groups because of their beliefs wherever and whenever they occur.
	The UK believes that no-one should be persecuted because of their religion or belief, and we condemn all instances of violence and discrimination against individuals and groups because of their faith or belief. We strongly support the right to freedom of religion or belief as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the full implementation of the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's overseas missions have a responsibility to monitor and raise human rights in their host countries and regularly raise our concerns with host Governments, including freedom of religion or belief when appropriate. Where possible our embassies take action on individual cases where persecution or discrimination has occurred and lobby for changes in discriminatory practices and laws.
	We believe that more open and inclusive societies in the middle east is the surest route to stability, and to ensuring the security for minorities in the long run. The UK is supporting this process through the Arab Partnership, by promoting the strengthening of the institutions crucial for more open and accountable societies—the judiciary, a free press and vibrant civil society.

Middle East

Conor Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to ensure that minority religious groups such as Coptic Christians receive protection in Arab spring countries.

Alistair Burt: We are committed to promoting the rights of all religious groups, including Coptic Christians, in the middle east and North Africa region. We will continue to highlight and condemn instances of violence and discrimination against individuals and groups because of their beliefs wherever and whenever they occur.
	In Egypt, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) condemned the loss of life following violent events in October 2011 and stressed that the ability to worship in peace is a vital component of a democratic society. He called the Egyptian Foreign Minister on 12 October 2012 to discuss the situation, and the action that the Egyptian Government was taking to address sectarian tension. We continue to urge the authorities to promote religious tolerance and ensure that the right for all to worship in peace is protected under the new constitution and in law.
	In Syria, we continue to impress on the opposition the need to state their commitment to protecting minorities, including Christians. It is encouraging that the umbrella organisation, the Syria National Council, has made such a commitment in the strongest terms.
	In Tunisia, we are working with partners to enhance the effectiveness of the Constitutional Assembly, responsible for drafting a new constitution based on democratic values and human rights.
	We believe that more open and inclusive societies is the surest route to stability and to ensuring the security for minorities in the long run. The UK is supporting this process through the Arab Partnership, by strengthening political participation, the rule of law, public voice and sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Middle East and Africa

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in which countries in the Middle East and Africa no UK Government officials are based.

Alistair Burt: We currently have no UK based officials in 17 out of 68 countries in the Middle East and Africa. All 17 countries are in Africa, and have an accredited ambassador or high commissioner resident in another location. This does not include posts where we have suspended operations—Iran, Syria and Bamako (decision to return by Ministers pending)—as we consider these to be temporary closures until security and other considerations allow our return. Following is the full list of countries, and their accredited ambassador/high commissioner.
	
		
			 No presence Accredited 
			 Benin High commissioner resident in Abuja, Nigeria 
			 Burkina Faso Ambassador resident in Accra, Ghana 
			 Cape Verde Ambassador resident in Kigali, Rwanda 
			 Central African Republic Ambassador resident in Dakar, Senegal 
		
	
	
		
			 Chad High commissioner resident in Yaounde, Cameroon 
			 Comoros High commissioner resident in Yaounde, Cameroon 
			 Congo, Republic of High commissioner resident in Port Louis, Mauritius 
			 Djibouti Ambassador resident in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 
			 Equatorial Guinea High commissioner resident in Abuja, Nigeria 
			 Gabon High commissioner resident in Yaounde, Cameroon 
			 Guinea-Bissau Ambassador resident in Dakar, Senegal 
			 Lesotho High commissioner resident in Pretoria, South Africa 
			 Niger Ambassador resident in Accra, Ghana 
			 Sao Tome and Principe Ambassador resident in Luanda, Angola 
			 Somalia Ambassador resident in Nairobi, Kenya 
			 Swaziland Ambassador resident in Pretoria, South Africa 
			 Togo Ambassador resident in Accra, Ghana

Pakistan

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has raised with his Pakistani counterpart the death of Abdul Qudoos Ahmad; what steps he is taking to promote human rights around the world; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: I am aware of the allegations that Abdul Qudoos, a member of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, was tortured to death while in police custody. Her Majesty's Government has made clear its concern about the treatment of minority religious groups such as the Ahmadiyya community and the wider human rights situation in Pakistan. While we have not raised this individual case we regularly discuss issues of religious freedom with the Government of Pakistan and the importance of perpetrators of human rights abuses being brought to justice. These issues were covered during the visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in February. They also form part of the regular human rights dialogue the EU have with the Government of Pakistan.

Retirement

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many (a) civil servants and (b) senior civil servants have retired from his Department since May 2010; and if he will make a statement.

Henry Bellingham: According to our records, a total of 208 civil servants have retired in the period May 2010-31 March 2012. This includes 37 staff in the SMS (senior civil service equivalent) level.
	The figures are for those members of staff who have left during the period and who have had immediate access to a pension. These figures do not include retirements from FCO Services.

Russia

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his Russian counterpart on (a) the Abuyeva judgment and (b) other outstanding European Court of Human Rights judgments relating to human rights violations in Chechnya; and if he will make a statement.

David Lidington: At Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Human Rights meetings we have urged Russia to demonstrate concrete progress on implementation of European Court of Human Rights judgments relating to Chechnya, and have specifically raised the Abuyeva v . Russia judgment. We supported the Committee of Ministers resolution, adopted in September 2011, which strongly urged the Russian authorities to take necessary measures to implement judgments. The UK has recently become a contributor to the Council of Europe's Human Rights Trust Fund, which is running a project to assist implementation of judgments concerning action of security forces in Chechnya.
	We remain deeply concerned about grave human rights violations in Chechnya, and the entire North Caucasus region, including allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture and disappearances of individuals. We have made clear to the Russian Government that putting an end to human rights violations is a vital element in the achievement of a long-term solution to the North Caucasus' problems.

Sudan

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether his Department has had any recent discussions with representatives of the Chinese government on arms sales to Sudan.

Jeremy Browne: We are concerned by recent reports that the Government of Sudan may have transferred Chinese-made equipment to Darfur in violation of the UN arms embargo. We have raised our concerns about possible violations of the arms embargo, during discussions on arms sales to Sudan, in the Sudan Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

Syria

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions his Department has had with its international counterparts on potential measures in respect of Syria in the event that it does not abide by the ceasefire.

Alistair Burt: As the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) said on 21 April we remain extremely concerned that the Syrian regime is still failing to meet its commitments, and that there has been further violence including the use of heavy weapons since 12 April when the Syrian regime said it was implementing a ceasefire.
	We regularly hold discussions on Syria with our international partners. Most recently in New York, on 24 April, the Joint UN/Arab League Special Envoy, Kofi Annan, briefed the UN Security Council on the unacceptable levels of regime violence continuing in Syria. This followed a unanimous vote in the Security Council on 21 April to authorise a full mission to monitor the end of violence in Syria. On 19 April the Friends of Syria Core Group met in Paris, making clear their support for the Annan Plan and need for the full monitoring mission to deploy as soon as possible.

Western Sahara

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of recent developments in Western Sahara.

Alistair Burt: The political status of the territory of Western Sahara remains under dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front. I am pleased to note the reduction in violations of the ceasefire by both parties as outlined in this year's United Nations Secretary-General's report. I also welcome the establishment of regional offices of the National Council of Human Rights in Laayoune and Dakhla and the visit by the UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights in September 2011.
	UK officials continue to visit Western Sahara on a regular basis to assess the situation there first hand.

Western Sahara

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department's policy is on renewal of the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.

Alistair Burt: I continue to support the UN-led political process to encourage Morocco and the Polisario Front to reach a long-lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. It will also be important to hold both parties to account for the human rights commitments they have made as noted in UNSCR 1979 and to ensure that the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is able to fulfil its mandated tasks unhindered.

EDUCATION

Children Act 1989

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will publish data setting out the nationality and immigration status of all (a) children and (b) family members receiving public assistance under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 in local authorities in England in each of the last five years.

Sarah Teather: Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 refers to “Provision of services for children in need, their families and others”. Information on children in need has been collected annually from local authorities via the Children in Need (CIN) Census from 2008-09, and through the CPR3 survey before that. However neither the CIN Census or the CPR3 survey collect information on children's nationality or immigration status, nor do they collect information regarding the families of children in need.

Dyslexia

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what proportion of (a) children and (b) adults are diagnosed with dyslexia;
	(2)  if he will estimate the proportion of children in each (a) socio-economic and (b) ethnic group who are dyslexic.

Sarah Teather: Data on formal diagnoses of dyslexia are not collected centrally. In January there were 78,135 pupils who were identified as having a specific learning difficulty (such as dyslexia or dyspraxia) as their primary need at school action plus or with a statement of special educational need (SEN). This represents 1% of all pupils.
	This figure is broken down by (a) eligibility for free school meals and (b) ethnic group in the following tables. These figures do not include pupils who are receiving support for dyslexia or other forms of special educational need at school action, as this data is not broken down by type of need.
	
		
			 Table A: State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools (1,2,3,4) : Number and percentage of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals (5,6) , January 2011, England 
			  Pupils with a specific learning difficulty All pupils Percentage of pupils with a specific learning difficulty (7) 
			 Pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals 19,160 1,256,420 1.5 
			 Pupils not eligible for and claiming free school meals 58,975 6,236,885 0.9 
			 All pupils 78,135 7,493,305 1.0 
			 (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes primary academies. (3) Includes city technology colleges and secondary academies. (4) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (5) Includes pupils who are sole or dual main registrations. (6 )Pupils at School Action Plus and those pupils with a statement of SEN provided information on their primary need and, if appropriate, their secondary need. Information on primary need only is given here. (7) Number of pupils with a specific learning difficulty expressed as a percentage of all pupils by free school meal eligibility. Note: Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. Source: School Census 
		
	
	
		
			 Table B: State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools (1,2,3,4) : Number and percentage of pupils with a specific learning difficulty by ethnic group (5,6,7) , January 2011, England 
			  Primary SEN need (7) : 
			  Specific learning difficulty 
			  Number % (8) 
			 White 66,920 1.3 
			 White British 63,795 1.3 
			 Irish 330 1.5 
			 Traveller of Irish heritage 130 3.0 
			 Gypsy/Roma 340 2.6 
			 Any other White background 2,330 0.9 
			    
			 Mixed 2,845 1.0 
			 White and Black Caribbean 1,160 1.4 
			 White and Black African 315 1.0 
			 White and Asian 435 0.7 
			 Any other mixed background 935 1.0 
			    
			 Asian 2,805 0.5 
			 Indian 595 0.4 
			 Pakistani 1,255 0.5 
		
	
	
		
			 Bangladeshi 570 0.6 
			 Any other Asian background 390 0.4 
			    
			 Black 2,960 0.9 
			 Black Caribbean 1,175 1.3 
			 Black African 1,380 0.7 
			 Any other Black background 405 1.1 
			    
			 Chinese 100 0.4 
			    
			 Any other ethnic group 630 0.7 
			    
			 Classified (6) 76,265 1.2 
			    
			 Unclassified (9) 840 1.4 
			    
			 Minority ethnic pupils (10) 12,470 0.8 
			    
			 All pupils (11) 77,100 1.2 
			 (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes primary academies. (3) Includes city technology colleges and secondary academies. (4) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (5) Includes pupils who are sole or dual main registrations. (6) Pupils of compulsory school age and above were classified according to ethnic group. (7) Pupils at School Action Plus and with a statement of SEN provided information on their primary need and, if appropriate, their secondary need. Information on primary need only is given here. (8) Number of pupils with a primary need of specific learning difficulty expressed as a percentage of all pupils of the same ethnic group. (9) Information was refused or not obtained. (10) Includes all pupils classified as belonging to an ethnic group other than White British. (11) All pupils of compulsory school age and above according to primary need. Note:Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. Source: School Census.

Education Welfare Officers

Stephen Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many education welfare officers and exclusion officers were employed by local authorities in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many were employed in (a) 2009, (b) 2010 and (c) 2011.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 24 April 2012
	The information requested is not collected centrally.

Free Schools

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent discussions he has had with private sector providers on the establishment of for-profit free schools.

Nick Gibb: The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), meets a range of organisations each month and the discussions in these meetings cover a wide variety of topics.

Human Rights: Children

Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what training departmental staff receive on the rights of children and child protection.

Alistair Burt: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides several levels of human rights training from introduction to advanced. A two day introduction course aims are to ensure that staff: have a basic knowledge of key components of international human rights institutions and how they operate; understand the relevance of their Department's work to the FCO's Human Rights and Democracy Strategy; and are able to identify and respond to potential human rights issues in their work area.
	Consular staff are trained in the procedures they must follow when helping British nationals abroad. This includes what the FCO can and cannot do to assist those affected by child abduction in line with our publication “Support for British Nationals Abroad: A Guide”. In cases involving children and young people, particular attention is paid to issues covered in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the “Fraser Guidelines” which recognises decision making capabilities in children in line with their evolving maturity. Staff are kept up to date with any changes to procedures and legislation through online information and workshops. FCO consular officers are not trained social workers or lawyers. Matters regarding the rights of the child and child protection are left to the appropriate professional bodies.
	Staff overseas working for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) as entry clearance officers (ECOs) or managers (ECMs) are required to complete a mandatory e-learning training course, “Keeping Children Safe”. Further sessions on keeping children safe, which highlight the importance of child welfare and protection are included on the entry clearance officers /managers training courses.
	FCO staff working as part of UKBA's International Group as Risk and Liaison Overseas Network (RALON) officers are required to complete a mandatory e-learning course, “Protection of Minors and Human Trafficking”. RALON training also includes a four-hour session on Children's Duty delivered by senior officers involved in Operation Paladin, a joint child protection team of Metropolitan police and UKBA officers at Heathrow.
	For FCO staff working for the Identity and Passports Service there is specific guidance about issuing passports for children, including legislation on adoption and surrogacy.

Numeracy

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to improve numeracy in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

Nick Gibb: Numeracy is the core foundation of mathematics. We are currently undertaking a review of the national curriculum at primary and secondary level in order to provide children with the essential mathematical knowledge needed when they leave school. At primary level, we are working with the professionals in the sector to promote an effective, proven way of teaching arithmetic. This will ensure that children leave primary school proficient in using efficient, written methods of calculation and with a good understanding of mathematical concepts to prepare them for the more complex mathematics they will encounter in secondary school.
	At secondary level, we are increasing the number and quality of mathematics teachers with bursaries of up to £20,000 to attract the best mathematics graduates into teaching and we are expanding participation in the Teach First scheme. We are providing £6 million over three years to fund the National Centre for Excellence in the teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) to coordinate and quality assure continuing professional development (CPD) activities for mathematics teachers at both primary and secondary phases.

Private Education

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many recipients of the education maintenance allowance were enrolled at independent schools in academic year 2010-11.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 23 April 2012
	10,280 recipients of education maintenance allowance in the academic year 2010/11 were enrolled at independent schools.

Schools: Hygiene

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will undertake an assessment of the effect of streamlining the School Premises Regulations on the standard of school toilets and washing facilities, and children's health.

Nick Gibb: The main effect of streamlining the School Premises Regulations will be greater clarity about what the requirements for all school premises are. To assess the impact of this simplification, and any other effects of streamlining, we carried out a public consultation on the new Regulations. In it, we asked whether respondents agreed that the wording of the proposed standard adequately covers the requirements for toilet and washing facilities. Responses are being taken into account in finalising the regulation.

Schools: Hygiene

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will take steps to ensure the new School Premises Regulations contain standards for toilets and washing facilities equivalent to those in the Workplace Regulations.

Nick Gibb: The Workplace Regulations cover adult employees and therefore apply to the toilet and washing facilities in schools used by teachers and other staff. Some of their requirements, adapted where necessary to suit use by children, will be included in the standards for toilet and washing facilities for pupils and in the supplementary guidance that supports them.

Schools: Vocational Guidance

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the likely cost to schools of providing impartial face-to-face sessions of information, advice and guidance in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14 academic years.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 24 April 2012
	Schools will be free to determine how best to meet their new duty to secure independent careers guidance, in accordance with the needs and circumstances of their pupils. Recently published statutory guidance requires schools to secure access to independent, face-to-face careers guidance where it is the most suitable support for young people to make successful transitions, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds or with special educational needs, learning difficulties or disabilities.
	The Dedicated Schools Grant for 2012-13 has been announced. Together with the pupil premium, this forms the level of schools budgets. Schools should determine how much they wish to spend on careers guidance, including face-to-face provision. Costs will vary and are a matter for schools and the careers providers they choose to contract with. We do not hold details of these financial arrangements.

Teachers: First Aid

Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of teachers in Salford and Eccles constituency have received first aid training.

Nick Gibb: This information is not collected centrally.

Teachers: Pay

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will estimate the mean pay of (a) school teachers and (b) sixth form college teachers in each age group in (A) Portsmouth, (B) Hampshire and (C) England and Wales taking account of employment length and job-related responsibilities.

Nick Gibb: The information requested is not available in the format requested.
	The following table provides the average salaries by grade and age group of full-time qualified teachers in service in publicly funded schools in Portsmouth and Hampshire local authorities and England in November 2010, the latest period for which information is available.
	Teacher statistics for Wales are available from the Welsh Government at the following web link:
	http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/schools2011/?lang=en
	
		
			 Average salaries (1)  of full-time regular qualified teachers in service in publicly funded schools by age and grade. November 2010 ,  Portsmouth and Hampshire local authorities and England 
			 £ 
			  Age 
			  Under 25 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60 and over All ages (2) 
			 Portsmouth           
			 Heads (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— 62,000 65,900 69,900 66,700 (3)— 66,400 
		
	
	
		
			 Deputy Heads (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— 53,100 (3)— 54,500 53,400 (3)— 51,500 
			 Assistant Heads (3)— (3)— (3)— 51,800 51,900 (3)— 53,200 51,700 (3)— 50,900 
			 Advanced Skills Teachers (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— 44,800 
			 Excellent Teachers n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 
			 Classroom Teachers 23,200 28,000 34,700 36,600 35,800 36,500 38,000 39,300 40,200 33,400 
			 All Teachers 23,200 28,400 35,400 38,900 40,600 41,900 44,800 45,700 49,900 37,300 
			            
			 Hampshire           
			 Heads (3)— (3)— (3)— 54,500 57,800 62,000 65,600 64,000 63,600 61,800 
			 Deputy Heads (3)— (3)— 45,100 49,000 47,600 53,200 51,900 53,000 (3)— 49,900 
			 Assistant Heads (3)— (3)— 45,700 48,500 48,900 51,000 52,100 50,900 (3)— 49,400 
			 Advanced Skills Teachers (3)— (3)— 45,300 (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— 45,500 
			 Excellent Teachers (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— (3)— 
			 Classroom Teachers 23,100 28,900 35,100 37,200 36,000 36,700 38,700 39,700 38,500 33,900 
			 All Teachers 23,100 29,000 35,900 39,800 39,600 41,200 44,100 45,000 42,600 36,900 
			            
			 England           
			 Heads (3)— 57,900 52,500 55,600 59,100 62,100 64,000 65,600 68,700 62,600 
			 Deputy Heads (3)— 43,900 45,400 50,600 52,200 53,400 55,000 55,200 56,900 52,300 
			 Assistant Heads (3)— 44,100 47,000 49,300 50,100 50,400 51,000 51,300 52,200 49,800 
			 Advanced Skills Teachers (3)— 40,400 43,100 45,500 47,000 47,200 47,600 48,400 47,800 45,500 
			 Excellent Teachers (3)— 43,600 44,300 48,000 45,200 46,600 47,600 42,900 (3)— 44,800 
			 Classroom Teachers 24,000 29,400 35,100 37,200 37,100 37,800 39,300 40,000 39,600 34,600 
			 All Teachers 24,000 29,700 36,200 40,000 41,000 42,400 44,500 45,700 46,100 38,000 
			 n/a = Not applicable. (1) The average is calculated using the mean. (2) Includes those where age is not known or unspecified. (3) Salaries have not been provided where the number of teachers are less than 10. Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Source: School Workforce Census

Travel

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many journeys (a) Ministers and (b) officials from his Department made by (i) train, (ii) coach and (iii) Government car in an official capacity in each of the last six months.

Tim Loughton: The number of rail journeys undertaken in each of the last six months (from October 2011 to March 2012) by Ministers and officials respectively is as follows:
	
		
			 Rail journeys 
			  Ministers Officials 
			 October 2011 14 2,706 
			 November 2011 20 3,259 
			 December 2011 1 1,964 
			 January 2012 17 5,709 
			 February 2012 17 3,456 
			 March 2012 20 5,102 
		
	
	The number of journeys in Government cars is as follows:
	
		
			 Journeys in Government cars 
			  Ministers Officials 
			 October 2011 62 3 
			 November 2011 82 5 
			 December 2011 45 0 
			 January 2012 65 5 
			 February 2012 70 4 
			 March 2012 78 3 
		
	
	This does not include all journeys made by the Secretary of State, as he uses an allocated departmental car and driver, and the journeys are not recorded individually. The Department does not have a contract for coach travel and therefore does not hold a central record of such journeys.

HEALTH

Accident and Emergency Departments

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was in the accident and emergency ward at Kings Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire in each of the last three years.

Simon Burns: The data is not available in the format requested. Mean and median time waited (in minutes)(1) for all accident and emergency (A&E) attendances(2) at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust(3) for the years 2008-09 to 2010-11(4) is available in the following table:
	
		
			   2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 
			 Provider code Provider description Mean Median Mean Median Mean Median 
			 RK5 Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 123 115 124 115 129 123 
			 (1) The time (expressed as a whole number of minutes) between the patient's arrival and the time the A&E attendance has concluded and the Department is no longer responsible for the care of the patient. (2) A&E Attendances in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) relate to the number of recorded attendances. A&E attendances do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. HES A&E figures exclude planned follow up attendances. (3) A provider code is a unique code that identifies, an organisation acting as a health care provider (eg NHS trust or primary care trust). (4) HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in national health service practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so are no longer included in admitted patient HES data. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The Information Centre for health and social care.

Ambulance Services

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) genuine and (b) malicious emergency calls were received by Nottinghamshire Ambulance Service in each of the last three years.

Simon Burns: The data are not available in the format requested. Nottinghamshire Ambulance Service is part of East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Genuine and malicious calls received by the East Midlands Ambulance Trust are included within category C in the following table:
	
		
			 Emergency calls for East Midlands Ambulance Service (1) 
			 31 March to 1 April Calls Category C 
			 2008-09 667.5 191.9 
			 2009-10 692.9 196.3 
			 2010-11(2) 723.5 200.3 
			 (1)Also includes urgent calls. (2 )During 2010-11 submission it was found that a trust had miscoded category A calls as category C. The 2010-11 data was resubmitted and is correct as published. The impact at national level in 2010-11 was 0.1%. This issue may have affected previous years submissions however the impact cannot be confirmed (a revised dataset for previous years is not readily available). Source: The Information Centre for health and social care

Anti-depressants

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has made an assessment of the effect of long-term use of anti-depressants on the libido of patients.

Simon Burns: Clinical trials submitted at the time of licensing have examined the safety and efficacy of anti-depressants. These data are carefully evaluated by the independent scientific advisory committee, the Commission on Human Medicines, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) prior to licensing to ensure that the products work and are acceptably safe.
	A reduction in libido is associated with the underlying condition of depression and anxiety and related disorders for which the anti-depressants are used to treat.
	As with all effective medicines, anti-depressants may cause side effects in some individuals and it is recognised that the majority of anti-depressants can be associated with changes in libido and other sexual problems. Most cases resolve once the depression is treated and the anti-depressant medication is stopped. Where libido changes are known to be a side effect of an anti-depressant this is reflected in the product information for prescribers and included in the Patient Information Leaflet.
	The longer term safety of the use of anti-depressants in routine clinical practice is closely monitored by the MHRA including reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) submitted by health professionals through the “Yellow Card” scheme. All new data, including data relating to the effects of anti-depressants on libido and sexual function, are carefully evaluated. Where appropriate, product information for prescribers and patients is updated and advice issued.

Care Quality Commission

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for reform of the Care Quality Commission.

Simon Burns: The Department has recently undertaken a performance and capability review of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
	The report of the review, which was published on 23 February 2012, recognised the progress that the CQC has made in the past three years, and sets out recommendations to support its continuing improvement by providing a clearer strategic direction, strengthening the CQC board and developing and delivering the regulatory model.
	A copy of the report “Performance and Capability review of the Care Quality Commission” has already been placed in the Library and the report can be found on the Department's website at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/02/cqc-performance-review
	The Health and Social Care Act 2012 will make a number of changes to the CQC's functions. These changes will allow the CQC to focus more strongly on its key role in assuring the safety and quality of health and adult social care services.

Care Quality Commission

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) Performance and Capability Review will assess the merits of (a) creating different inspection regimes to reflect the different types of providers inspected and (b) more clearly separating the roles and responsibilities of the former Mental Health Act Commission section of the CQC.

Simon Burns: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act), all providers of regulated activities, including national health service and independent providers, have to register with the CQC and meet a set of essential requirements of safety and quality.
	The Department published the report of its Performance and Capability Review of the CQC on 23 February.
	A copy of the report “Performance and Capability review of the Care Quality Commission” has already been placed in the Library and the report can be found on the Department's website at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/02/cqc-performance-review
	The CQC will now respond in full to the recommendations made. The CQC has advised us that it intends to provide its response by the end of this month.
	The CQC is responsible for developing and consulting on its methodology for assessing whether providers are meeting the registration requirements and published its guidance about compliance in March 2010. This sets out how providers in different sectors can demonstrate they are meeting the requirements.
	The CQC has advised the following:
	The CQC has a statutory duty to monitor how services exercise their powers under the Mental Health Act, to provide a safeguard for patients.
	At the moment the CQC has a clear written protocol to ensure that its two primary methods of monitoring mental health services are effective and relate to one another. The first relates to the role of its Mental Health Act Commissioners and the second relates to its wider enforcement and inspection role.

Care Quality Commission

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many inspections of (a) acute and (b) secure mental health facilities were undertaken by the Care Quality Commission in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Paul Burstow: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.
	The CQC took over the regulation of health and adult social care under the Care Standards Act 2000 on 1 April 2009. National health service providers were brought into the new regulatory framework under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 on 1 April 2010. Since 1 October 2010, independent health care providers and adult social care providers have been regulated under the new framework.
	The CQC has provided the following information:
	In 2009-10 there were 117 inspections of independent healthcare services with mental health provision. NHS providers were not required to register with the CQC in 2009-10. The CQC is not able to break the figure down into acute and secure.
	The following table shows the numbers of inspections for each type of provider for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12.
	
		
			  Registered acute services categorised within the 'mental health' service user band Registered secure mental health services categorised within the appropriate regulated activity 
			 2010-11 17 261 
			 2011-12 19 713 
			 Notes: 1. These figures do not include Mental Health Act commissioner visits for the period, which are: 2009-10: 1,709 visits 2010-11: 1,565 visits 2011-12: 1,502 visits 2. The number of inspections is against locations rather than providers. 3. Independent healthcare providers were registered under Care Standards Act until October 2010 when they came into registration under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The figures for the two years are not comparable. 
		
	
	The information in this table is correct at 24 April 2012.

Care Quality Commission

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many specialist mental health inspectors were employed by the Care Quality Commission in each of the last three years for which figures are available;
	(2)  following the announcement of the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) new judgement and enforcement framework, what plans the CQC has to recruit additional inspectors with a specialism in mental health.

Simon Burns: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England.
	The CQC is implementing a new regulatory model, which will see providers inspected more frequently. The Department has already agreed that the CQC will receive additional funding for staff recruitment in 2012-13. As an independent body, the CQC is responsible for the recruitment of its own staff.
	The CQC has provided the following information:
	The CQC does not employ compliance inspectors solely on their health and social care sector experience. Although many of its inspectors have specialist health and social care professional backgrounds, this is not an absolute requirement as all CQC inspectors are fully trained.
	Where specific clinical expertise is required the CQC can call upon clinical associates to assist in making regulatory judgements which have a specialist mental health element. The CQC is currently expanding this scheme and working with sector specialists and clinicians on revising its specialist guidance to inspectors on mental health.
	The CQC engages over 90 Mental Health Act commissioners, who do not work as inspectors, but monitor services that provide a safeguard for patients detained under the Mental Health Act.

Care Quality Commission

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment the Care Quality Commission has made of its ability to inspect accurately (a) acute and (b) secure mental health services.

Simon Burns: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and it is responsible for developing and consulting on its methodology for assessing whether providers are meeting the registration requirements.
	The CQC has provided the following information:
	The CQC has conducted several assessments since 2009 and has sought to build on what it has learned in the last two years and listen to the feedback it receives. As part of the CQC's field force restructure in 2010 the design and delivery of all its inspections, including acute and secure mental services was taken into account. The CQC has also been working to align Mental Health Act functions with the work of the rest of the organisation, which has progressed but is still ongoing. In reporting its activity, the CQC will continue to maintain the distinction between MHA monitoring visits to individual patients and compliance inspections which assess how organisations are meeting essential standards. The CQC consulted in late 2011 on changes to its compliance model and judgment framework to simplify and strengthen its regulatory model. These changes are being implemented.
	As part of its strategic review the CQC is considering how it might adapt its generic model to particular specialisations more effectively. This is to be piloted in mental health.
	Where specific clinical expertise is required for inspections, the CQC can call upon clinical associates to assist in making regulatory judgments which have a specialist mental health element. The CQC is currently expanding this scheme and working with sector specialists and clinicians on revising its specialist guidance to inspectors on mental health.

Dental Services

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what requirement Birmingham and Solihull primary care trusts have to provide an out-of-hours dental service; and whether the National Commissioning Board will have responsibility for the provision of out-of-hours dental services from April 2013.

Simon Burns: Primary care trusts (PCTs) are required by legislation to ensure out of hours services are available to the extent they consider reasonable. PCTs contract with local high street dental practices and or the community dental service to deliver this care. This is part of their general legal duty to commission dental services to meet local need. As of April 2013 all PCT responsibilities for dentistry, including ensuring out of hours dental services, will pass on to the National Health Service Commissioning Board.

Food: Labelling

Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what steps he plans to take in respect of food outlets which do not sign up to his Responsibility Deal agreements on calorie labelling;
	(2)  how many of the top 10 high street restaurant chains have complied with the Responsibility Deal agreement on providing calorie labelling on menus.

Anne Milton: A range of high street businesses are signed up to the Responsibility Deal Out of Home Calorie Labelling pledge including quick service restaurants, takeaways, coffee and sandwich shops, and casual dining restaurants.
	All partners signed up to this pledge are listed on the Department's Responsibility Deal webpages at:
	www.responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk
	Annual updates from each business reporting on its progress will also be available on this website in the summer.
	We will continue with an active programme of engagement and persuasion to secure continued growth in the number of signatories to the Out of Home Calorie Labelling pledge and other food pledges.

Food: Safety

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for (a) Education and (b) Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on public education in relation to the role of anti-angiogenic foodstuffs in preventing (i) cancer and (ii) obesity;
	(2)  whether his Department has incurred expenditure on raising the awareness of (a) GPs and (b) the general public on specific benefits of foods that promote anti-angiogenic growth; and what the amount of any such expenditure was in each recent year for which data is available;
	(3)  if he will consider rating and labelling foods in respect of their anti-angiogenic properties.

Anne Milton: I refer the hon. Member to the written answers I gave him on 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 113W.
	Given the lack of evidence to support a role for anti-angiogenic foods in prevention of cancer and obesity, we have not had any discussions with the Secretary of State for Education or the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, nor has the Department incurred any costs for raising awareness of foods which claim these properties.
	Claims that a food can treat, prevent or cure any disease or medical condition are not permitted under European food labelling legislation, this would include foods claiming to reduce cancer or obesity through anti-angiogenic properties.

General Practitioners

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio is of male to female GPs.

Simon Burns: The annual workforce census shows that at 30 September 2011 there were 35,318 full-time equivalent general practitioners (GPs) employed by the national health service in England and there were 19,686 men and 15,632 women. The ratio of men to women GPs is 1.26 : 1.

Industrial Relations

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many working days were lost in the NHS due to industrial action in each of the last five years.

Simon Burns: Since April 2008, days lost to industrial action in the national health service are recorded on the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse. As this particular data field is not centrally validated, any analysis is subject to an element of uncertainty, particularly when identifying absences specific to local action.
	The number of full-time equivalent days lost to industrial action is estimated to be around 200 in April to December 2008, around 20 in each of 2009 and 2010 and around 72,000 in 2011.

Liver Diseases

Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to publish the Government's liver strategy.

Simon Burns: Professor Martin Lombard, National Clinical Director for Liver Disease continues to lead work with the national health service and public health stakeholders to improve outcomes for liver disease. The Government's alcohol strategy published 23 March 2012 and “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Call to Action on Obesity in England” published on 13 October 2011 will contribute to addressing liver disease. The liver strategy will be published in due course.

NHS: Foreign Workers

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) nurses and (b) doctors from each overseas country are working in England.

Anne Milton: This information is not collected by the Department.
	The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) collects data on the number of admissions to the NMC register by overseas country.
	The NHS information centre for health and social care collects data on the number of medical staff in England broken down by country of primary medical qualification.
	The information has been placed in the Library.

NHS: Private Sector

Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the NHS budget has been spent in the private sector, including contracts awarded to the private sector, since May 2010.

Anne Milton: Patients have the right to be treated at a private sector provider, if that option is available and it is agreed with their clinician, provided that the provider meets national health service standards and NHS costs.
	The proportion of the NHS budget spent purchasing health care from the private sector In 2010-11 was 4.8%.
	As the following table shows, in cash terms, this represented an increase of 14% over the level of spending in 2009-10. This compares to the annual increase of 21% in the last year of the previous Government, when the right hon. Member was Secretary of State for Health.
	
		
			  2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 
			 Independent Sector Treatment Centres (£ million) 352 373 345 
			 Other private sector providers (£ million) 3,066 3,766 4,376 
			 Total (£ million) 3,418 4,139 4,721 
			     
			 Percentage increase — 21 14 
			 Notes: 1. These figures represent the purchase of health care by primary care trust (PCTs) from Independent Sector Treatment Centres and other private sector providers. 2. The figures are taken from the audited summarisation schedules of PCTs, from which the NHS (England) Summarised Accounts are prepared. 2010-11 is the latest period for which statutory accounting figures are available. 
		
	
	The table also shows that the level of spending on Independent Sector Treatment Centres declined in 2010-11 compared 2009-10. The right hon. Member will wish to be reminded that contracts with ISTCs, negotiated under the previous Government, included guarantees of payment regardless of how many patients were treated. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 will prohibit future Governments from favouring the private sector in such a way.

NHS: Screening

John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer to Lord Walton of Detchant of 26 March 2012, Official Report, House of Lords, column 208WA, on in-vitro diagnostic tests, whether he has any plans to require health institutions to report adverse incidents with in-house pathology tests in the same manner as for commercial pathology tests.

Simon Burns: Directive 98/79/EC on in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVDs) includes an exemption from the provisions of the legislation for IVDs manufactured ‘in-house’ by health institutions. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not currently have any plans to extend the provisions of the directive relating to the requirement to report adverse incidents to cover IVDs manufactured ‘in-house’ by health institutions.
	However, Directive 98/79/EC is currently the subject of a revision by the European Commission and revised legislation is expected to be published in autumn 2012, for agreement through the ordinary legislative procedure. The revised legislation is expected to maintain an exemption for health institutions manufacturing IVDs ‘in-house’; albeit with additional requirements for those health institutions to meet certain standards and an exclusion from the exemption for the highest risk devices. It is not yet clear whether the revised legislation may also include a requirement for adverse incidents to be reported to the MHRA by health institutions manufacturing devices ‘in-house’, although the MHRA will give careful consideration to the merits of such a proposal when finalising the United Kingdom negotiating position for the revision of the directive.

Nurses: Training

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has of the numbers (a) employed and (b) in training as (i) health visitors, (ii) school nurses, (iii) district nurses and (iv) community psychiatric nurses; how many full-time equivalents were in training in these groups; and how many were employed in each of these groups in each region of England in September of each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: The numbers of health visitors, school nurses, district nurses and community psychiatric nurses employed by the national health service in each strategic health authority in England for each year from 1995 have been placed in the Library. The data prior to 1995 is not comparable.
	Information on the total population of non-medical trainees in the system is not collected by the Department every year. The number of non-medical trainees is monitored by the number of new commissions going into training in each financial year. However, as community nurse training is usually a one-year programme, the number of commissions in each year can be used as a proxy for the total number of full-time equivalent community nurses in training.
	The number of community nursing commissions has only been collected from 2006-07 onwards. The number of health visitor, school nurse, district nurse and community psychiatric nurse commissions in England are shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Number of commissions in each financial year since 2006-07 
			  NHS 
			  North East North West Yorkshire and the Humber East Midlands West Midlands East of England London South East Coast South Central South West England 
			 2010-11 commissions            
			 Health visitors 35 78 59 44 56 82 88 31 36 36 545 
			 School nurses 17 30 28 12 23 24 35 15 9 19 212 
			 District Nurses 31 51 28 14 43 0 52 0 17 0 236 
			 Community psychiatric nurses 0 4 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 8 
			             
			 2009-10 commissions            
			 Health visitors 30 74 66 46 60 55 77 47 35 24 514 
			 School nurses 20 41 42 23 24 0 24 25 28 8 235 
			 District Nurses 30 76 52 41 38 0 44 18 21 0 320 
			 Community psychiatric nurses 0 6 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 9 
			             
			 2008-09 commissions            
			 Health visitors 24 65 52 66 44 49 58 18 15 42 433 
			 School nurses 14 40 23 36 22 0 25 13 19 15 207 
			 District Nurses 34. 60 35 25 34 0 51 0 32 7 278 
			 Community psychiatric nurses 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 
			             
			 2007-08 commissions            
			 Health visitors 44 50 47 40 25 0 18 20 14 11 269 
			 School nurses 16 29 26 30 18 0 19 10 9 4 161 
			 District Nurses 35 43 36 40 18 0 30 28 12 0 242 
			 Community psychiatric nurses 0 6 0 10 0 0 10 12 0 0 38 
			             
			 2006-07 commissions            
			 Health visitors 33 40 103 42 27 53 28 42 17 6 391 
			 School nurses 7 26 24 28 15 19 17 16 5 3 160 
			 District Nurses 15 30 21 30 42 35 22 20 13 2 230 
		
	
	
		
			 Community psychiatric nurses 0 11 0 12 7 5 10 4 0 0 49 
			 Source: Multi professional education and training monitoring returns.

Nutrition

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  when Ministers in his Department next plan to travel to Jersey to discuss the implementation of the Food Supplements Directive and the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation;
	(2)  whether his Department received a timetable from the representatives of the Jersey and Guernsey Governments on implementing the Food Supplements Directive and the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation in their respective states;
	(3)  when Ministers in his Department last discussed the Food Supplements Directive and the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation with representatives from the Jersey and Guernsey Governments.

Anne Milton: As policy responsibility for the Crown dependencies lies with the Ministry of Justice, Health Ministers have not had discussions with the authorities in Jersey and Guernsey and have no plans to visit either Crown dependency at this time.
	Officials in the Ministry of Justice have received information from both Crown dependencies that they are taking the necessary steps to implement these European Union Regulations at the earliest opportunity and continue to treat this legislation as a priority.

Organs: Donors

Gareth Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to support organ donation.

Anne Milton: Since the publication of the Organ Donation Taskforce report in 2008, a great deal of work has taken place to strengthen the donation programme and increase the number of organs available for patients. Since then organ donor rates have increased by around 35% and continue to rise.
	We have a number of initiatives to encourage people to add their name to the Organ Donation Register (ODR). Much of this work is led by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in conjunction with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors. For example, people may sign up to the ODR when they register with a new general practitioner, when applying for a new passport, when applying for a European Health Insurance Card and when applying for a Boots advantage card. We have established a prompted choice scheme, working in partnership with the Department of Transport and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, which requires people applying for a driving licence online to answer a question about organ donation.
	NHSBT have also begun preparations for Transplant Week 2012, which will run from 9 to 15 July 2012. The week provides the opportunity to drive public awareness of the need to sign up to the ODR.
	There are now over 200 highly trained Specialist Nurses for Organ Donation based in hospitals across the country. Clinical Leads for Organ Donation have also been appointed in every acute hospital working closely with hospital Organ Donation Committees to increase donation rates.
	A Transitional Steering Group (TSG) has been established to help maintain the momentum. The TSG will be focusing on the six big wins—optimising deceased donation rates through undertaking Brainstem Death Testing and considering Donation after Cardiac Death in all appropriate circumstances, increasing consent rates, increasing donation from emergency medicine, timely referral of donors and better donor management.

Primary Care Trusts: Foreign Nationals

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what information his Department holds on the number of primary care trusts in England that have failed to recover money owed by foreign nationals for NHS treatment in each year between 1997 and 2011;
	(2)  how much was owed to Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust in unpaid bills incurred by foreign nationals in each year between 1997 and 2011;
	(3)  if he will publish a breakdown by region of the number of primary care trusts in England that have failed to recover money owed by foreign nationals for NHS treatment in the latest period for which figures are available.

Anne Milton: National health service trusts and foundation trusts make and recover charges from overseas visitors who are not entitled to free NHS hospital treatment under regulations.
	The Department does not hold information on the number of NHS trusts that have failed to recover money owed by overseas visitors nor the amount owed to Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust in unpaid bills by overseas visitors. The Department does hold information on the total amounts by year that NHS trusts have invoiced overseas visitors for NHS hospital treatment, and the total amounts by year of debt relating to overseas visitors that NHS trusts have written off, but the written off debt figure may relate to invoices raised in earlier financial years.
	My hon. Friend may wish to approach Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust for information on how much was owed to it in unpaid bills by overseas visitors.

Sleep Apnoea

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS services for people with sleep apnoea; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns: It is for national health service organisations to determine the needs of their local population, including those in relation to sleep apnoea.
	The Department is working with the British Lung Foundation, who have set up an expert group to research the issues that affect patients and health care professionals in relation to services for people with sleep apnoea.

Speech Therapy: Children

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the Bercow Review on speech therapy for children; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: The Government has taken forward the recommendations in the “Better Communication Plan”, the Government's response to the Bercow Review. This has included: the appointment of a communication champion; the establishment of a communications council; commissioning a programme of research through the Centre for Educational Development and Research at the university of Warwick; a programme of grants to support the alternative and augmentative sector; a commissioning support programme; and support for voluntary sector led national year of communication in 2011.
	We are also taking action to support the delivery of universal services that promote language development. For example, we are committed to growing, by 2015, the health visitor workforce by 4,200 through a four year transformational programme of recruitment and retention, professional development and improved commissioning linked to public health improvement.
	In addition, on 26 January 2012 the Government launched the children and young people's health outcomes strategy. The strategy will identify a set of measurable outcomes that are meaningful to children, young people and families and that have the potential to drive real improvements in the system, including services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.

Surgery

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for an operation at Kings Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire in each of the last three years.

Simon Burns: The data is not available in the format requested. Referral to Treatment (RTT) waiting times for Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for March 2009 to February 2012 is available in the following table:
	
		
			  Average (median) 'time waited' for RTT patients that started admitted treatment during the month (in weeks) 
			 March 2009 9.4 
			 April 2009 9.5 
			 May 2009 11.0 
			 June 2009 10.7 
			 July 2009 11.1 
			 August 20009 9.7 
			 September 2009 12.2 
			 October 2009 10.9 
			 November 2009 10.0 
			 December 2009 10.2 
			 January 2010 11.1 
			 February 2010 11.4 
			 March 2010 10.0 
			 April 2010 9.9 
			 May 2010 10.1 
			 June 2010 9.2 
			 July 2010 10.7 
			 August 2010 8.9 
			 September 2010 9.6 
			 October 2010 10.3 
			 November 2010 9.1 
			 December 2010 9.2 
			 January 2011 11.1 
			 February 2011 10.4 
			 March 2011 10.8 
			 April 2011 9.4 
			 May 2011 10.4 
			 June 2011 10.2 
			 July 2011 10.2 
			 August 2011 10.2 
			 September 2011 10.8 
			 October 2011 10.2 
			 November 2011 10.8 
			 December 2011 9.5 
			 January 2012 10.7 
			 February 2012 10.6 
			 Note: Median waiting times are calculated from aggregate data, rather than patient level data, and therefore are only estimates of the position on average waits. Source: Department of Health RTT waiting times statistics (Unify2 data collection)

Tobacco: Packaging

Ian Paisley Jnr: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the evidential basis is for his policy that the introduction of plain packaging for all cigarette brands will reduce the number of smokers;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of whether the introduction of plain packaging for all cigarette brands will comply with intellectual property law;
	(3)  whether he has discussed with the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the introduction of plain packaging for all cigarette brands may lead to an increase in smuggling of contraband cigarettes;
	(4)  whether he has discussed with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills the potential effect that the introduction of plain packaging for all cigarette brands may have on jobs and businesses involved in tobacco production.

Anne Milton: On 16 April 2012, the Government published a “Consultation on the standardised packaging of tobacco products”, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library. The consultation is being undertaken, with the agreement of the devolved Administrations, on a United Kingdom-wide basis.
	The Government has an open mind about standardised packaging. Through the consultation, we want to understand whether there is evidence to demonstrate that the standardised packaging of tobacco products would have an additional public health benefit, over and above existing tobacco control initiatives. The consultation asks whether standardised packaging could improve public health by:
	reducing the appeal of tobacco products to consumers;
	increasing the effectiveness of health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products;
	reducing the ability of tobacco packaging to mislead consumers about the harmful effects of smoking; and
	having a positive effect on smoking-related attitudes, beliefs, intentions and behaviours, particularly among children and young people.
	Through the consultation, we are also seeking views on whether there might be legal or other implications if standardised packaging requirements were introduced.
	A consultation-stage Impact Assessment (IA) has also been published alongside the consultation document, which sets out our initial assessment of the potential impacts of the policy. Interested parties are invited to also provide views on this IA, including the impact that standardised packaging could have on businesses.
	The consultation will be open from 16 April to 10 July 2012. Any person, business or organisation with an interest is encouraged to respond.
	To inform responses to the consultation and any subsequent policy-making, the Department commissioned a systematic review of the evidence on plain tobacco packaging, “Plain Tobacco Packaging: A Systematic Review”. The review was supported through the Public Health Research Consortium (PHRC), a network of researchers funded by the Department's Policy Research Programme. The evidence review was published by the PHRC at the same time as the consultation and is available on the internet at:
	http://phrc.lshtm.ac.uk/project_2011-2016_006.html
	Discussions on health policy issues take place regularly between Ministers, and the potential unintended consequences of standardised tobacco packaging have been discussed at official level during the development of the consultation document.
	We will await the outcome of the consultation and analysis of the responses before any decision is made whether to proceed with a policy of standardised packaging for tobacco.
	Copies of the IA and the PHRC's evidence review have been placed in the Library.

CABINET OFFICE

Addison Lee

Maria Eagle: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what meetings (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in his Department have had with John Griffin of Addison Lee since 12 May 2010.

Francis Maude: holding answer 23 April 2012
	Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on the Cabinet Office website at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings-external-organisations
	Details of the most senior Cabinet Office officials' meetings with external organisations are published at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-permanent-secretaries%E2%80%99-meetings-external-organisations
	No central record is kept of other departmental officials' meetings and this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	No Cabinet Office Special Advisers have met with the named individual since 12 May 2010.

Civil Servants: Codes of Practice

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many investigations into breaches by civil servants of the Civil Service Code of Conduct occurred in his Department in each month from May 2010 to March 2012.

Francis Maude: Figures broken down by individual months of investigations into potential breaches of the Civil Service Code cannot be provided because of the small numbers involved and the need to protect the confidentiality of individual cases.
	The breakdown by year is as follows:
	
		
			  Breakdown 
			 2008 12 
			 2009 9 
			 2010 6 
			 2011 5

Contracts for Services

Grahame Morris: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether any requests by a Government department to implement outsourcing deals have been (a) amended and (b) rejected by his Department since May 2010.

Francis Maude: Departmental Accounting Officers are ultimately responsible for providing best value for the Crown.
	However my Department's spending controls are published on the Cabinet Office website at:
	www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-controls-guidance-actions-and-processes-document
	These controls have helped Whitehall drive around two thirds of the £3.75 billion of savings delivered over the 10 months to March 2011. The Cabinet Office has announced already that Whitehall is on track to deliver £5 billion of savings in 2011-12.
	The Cabinet Office has not, to date, rejected any proposals under the control on complex commercial models which covers business process outsourcing, but has amended proposals.

Employment: Private Sector

Michael Dugher: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the net change in the number of private sector jobs was in (a) Barnsley East constituency and (b) Barnsley metropolitan borough in the latest period for which figures are available.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated April 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what the net change in the number of private sector jobs was in (a) Barnsley East constituency and (b) Barnsley Metropolitan Borough in the latest period for which figures are available (105865).
	Due to small sample sizes the requested data are not available.

Foreign Nationals

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  how many nationals of each other European Economic Area member state are legally resident in the UK;
	(2)  how many nationals of each other European Economic Area (EEA) member state are legally resident in the UK by virtue of EU law; and how many of these have the right to residence under EU law by virtue of being a family member of a national of another EEA member state.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated April 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking;
	and,
	2. how many nationals of each other EEA member state are legally resident in the UK by virtue of EU law; and how many of these have the right to residence under EU law by virtue of being a family member of a national of another EEA member state.
	Table 1 shows the most recent estimate of the number of nationals of each European Economic Area (EEA) member state who reside in the UK. These latest estimates relate to the 12 month period from July 2010 to June 2011 and are based on the Annual Population Survey.
	Information on the immigration status of these EEA nationals is not available. Visa statistics are published by the Home Office. However, there is no information available on whether those EEA nationals granted visas are currently resident in the UK.
	
		
			 Table 1: EEA nationals resident in the United Kingdom, average between July 2010 and June 2011 
			 thousand 
			  Estimate CI (1)  (+/-) 
			 Poland 619 34 
			 Republic of Ireland 360 26 
			 France 128 16 
			 Italy 125 15 
			 Germany 119 15 
		
	
	
		
			 Lithuania 118 15 
			 Portugal 105 14 
			 Romania 84 13 
			 Spain 66 11 
			 Netherlands 56 10 
			 Slovakia 56 10 
			 Latvia 55 10 
			 Bulgaria 47 9 
			 Hungary 41 9 
			 Sweden 33 8 
			 Greece 32 8 
			 Czech Republic 31 8 
			 Belgium 24 7 
			 Denmark 21 6 
			 Norway 15 5 
			 Austria 13 5 
			 Finland 11 5 
			 Cyprus (EU) 10 4 
			 Estonia 8 4 
			 Malta 8 4 
			 Slovenia 2 2 
			 Iceland (2)— (2)— 
			 Liechtenstein (3)— (3)— 
			 Luxembourg (3)— (3)— 
			 (1) 'CI' Confidence Interval. (2) Data not available. (3) Data is zero or rounded to zero. Source: Annual Population Survey (APS)/Labour Force Survey (LFS), ONS

Foreign Nationals

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many nationals of non-European Economic Area countries are legally resident in the UK other than by virtue of EU law.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated April 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many nationals of non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries are legally resident in the UK other than by virtue of EU law (105596).
	The most recent estimate of the number of Non EEA nationals who reside in the UK is 2,496,000 with a corresponding margin of error of +/- 69,000. This estimate, along with other published Population by Country of Birth and Nationality estimates, is based on the Annual Population Survey and relates to the 12 month period of July 2010 to June 2011.
	The margin of error refers to the 95 per cent confidence interval and is a measure of the uncertainty associated with making inferences from a sample.
	Information on the immigration status of these non EEA nationals is not available. Visa statistics are published by the Home Office. However, there is no information available on whether those non EEA nationals granted visas are currently resident in the UK.

G20

Conor Burns: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the Government's priorities are for the G20 leaders summit in Los Cabos in June 2012.

Henry Bellingham: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
	The British Government is working closely with G20 partners to deliver a meaningful and successful summit. We consider it fundamental to ensure that the G20 effectively fulfils its role as the premier forum for our international economic cooperation including taking the necessary actions to address ongoing risks to the global economic recovery, and secure strong, sustainable and balance growth which supports employment and job creation. Britain is also working to ensure that G20 Leaders give the necessary political momentum to further the global trade agenda, in particular delivering on some elements of the Doha round, renewing our anti-protectionist pledge and furthering efforts to strengthen the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in line with the Prime Ministers' global governance report to the G20. We will also look to deliver strong messages on full and consistent implementation of financial regulation reforms, energy and commodity markets, development, infrastructure, food security, green growth and anti-corruption. The UK has been leading the work on anti-corruption jointly with Mexico and we have made excellent progress—a testament of successful collective action under the G20 umbrella. We aim to highlight to leaders the progress made in implementing the Action Plan, including developments on public sector integrity, denial of a safe haven to corrupt officials and international co-operation.

Government Departments: Pay

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which (a) Government Departments, (b) agencies and (c) public bodies (i) were and (ii) were not required to submit details of individuals earning over £150,000 to his Department for publication in (A) 2010 and (B) 2011; and which will be required to submit this information in 2012.

Francis Maude: holding answer 24 April 2012
	Since July 2010, all Government Departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) have been required to submit information for publication on staff in their organisation with pay rates of £150,000 or more (on a full-time equivalent basis) as at 31 March 2010 and 31 March 2011. All will be required to provide this information for publication by the Cabinet Office in 2012.

Government: Ministerial Meetings

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  whether (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in his Department have had any meetings with Sarah Southern since May 2010;
	(2)  whether (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in his Department have had any meetings with Peter Cruddas since May 2010.

Francis Maude: holding answer 18 April 2012
	Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on the Cabinet Office website at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings-external-organisations
	Details of the most senior Cabinet Office officials' meetings with external organisations are published at
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-permanent-secretaries%E2%80%99-meetings-external-organisations
	No central record is kept of other departmental officials' meetings and this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	No Cabinet Office special advisers have met with either named individuals in a Government capacity since May 2010.

Manpower

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many full-time equivalent staff worked for (a) the Office of Civil Society, (b) Directgov and (c) the Office for Government Commerce in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and how many he expects to be working for each in (A) 2012-13, (B) 2013-14 and (C) 2014-15; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: holding answer 23 April 2012
	The Office for Civil Society and Office of Government Commerce became part of the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) in June 2010. The headcount of the Office of Government Commerce at June 2010 was around 250 full-time equivalent staff (FTE). It has since ceased to exist as a separately identifiable entity. The headcount of the Office for Civil Society at June 2010 was around 70 FTE.
	ERG began to operate a flexible resourcing and development model across its core structure in 2011 This model of working allows for a more flexible working environment by allocating staff to time-bound assignments to ensure we are best able to focus our resources to deliver our priorities.
	The following table indicates the number of FTE working on civil society procurement and commercial related projects at the end of 2011-12, the latest date for which figures are available:
	
		
			  March 2012 
			 Civil Society 74 
			 Procurement 48 
			 Commercial 28 
		
	
	There is not yet a planned allocation of resource across projects in ERG for 2013-14 and 2014-15. The overall Cabinet Office planned headcount for 2013-14 and 2014-15 is 1,352 and 1,274 respectively.
	The number of full-time equivalent staff in Directgov for the periods requested was;
	2010-11: 141
	2011-12: 118
	The Government Digital Service was launched in December 2011 It replaced Directgov and other digital services. As a result, projections for Directgov in 2012-13 through to 2014-15 are 0 staff.

National Lottery

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer of 19 April 2012, Official Report, column 557W, on the National Lottery, how much funding the Big Lottery Fund has allocated for each of its key priorities in 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Hurd: The key priorities outlined in the Big Lottery Fund's strategy document “Fresh Thinking” are intended to signal those areas on which the Big Lottery Fund intends to focus in the next three years. They are not mutually exclusive and have no allocations attached to them. As a consequence, it is not possible to provide the information in the format requested.

Official Secrets

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether any person employed by (a) his Department, (b) the agencies and non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible and (c) any private firms contracted by his Department is bound by any part of the Official Secrets Act.

Francis Maude: As has long been the case, staff employed by the Cabinet Office (including its agency and NDPBs) are deemed as being Crown servants and as such are bound by the Official Secrets Act (1989). The Department's contractors are also bound by that Act as they are providing, or are employed in the provision of, goods and services for the purposes of a Minister.

Peel Group

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the total amount of public funding (a) paid to and (b) offered to companies owned by the Peel Group by the Government in each year since 2002.

Francis Maude: Information on the total amount of public funding is not held centrally.
	However the Government Procurement Service (GPS), an agency of the Cabinet Office, has paid £251,594.04 to Princes Dock, part of the Peel Group, for the lease of car parking facilities, since April 2004 to March 2011. This arrangement will cease in September 2012 and will not be renewed. The breakdown of the spend figures for each year, since April 2004 to date is as follows:
	
		
			  Spend (£) 
			 2004 5,742.78 
			 2005 21,736.70 
			 2006 16,531.24 
			 2007 31,909.09 
			 2008 34,112.06 
			 2009 64,499.02 
			 2010 69,082.31 
			 2011 7,980.84 
		
	
	Cabinet Office has no information on public funding offers to the Peel Group that may have been made by other parts of Government.
	This answer relates to the Cabinet Office and its agencies only. However, part of my Department's transparency programme, any spend over £25,000 is available on the Department's website. And all new contracts over the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder
	http://www.contractsfinder.co.uk/

Public Expenditure

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much his Department allocated to fund (a) the Office for Civil Society, (b) Directgov and (c) the Office for Government Commerce in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how much he plans to allocate to each in (A) 2012-13, (B) 2013-14 and (C) 2014-15; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: The 2010-11 Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts sets out 2010-11 expenditure against budget for the Office for Civil Society, Directgov (now the Government Digital Service) and the Office of Government Commerce (since April 2011 part of the efficiency and reform Group).
	Planned budgets from 2011-12 to 2014-15 for the Office for Civil Society and Directgov were also set out in that report and for 2011-12 updated through the Parliamentary Estimates process.

Telephone Services

John Spellar: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the Government's policy is on whether call centres contracted to Government Departments and agencies should be located in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: There is no specific Government policy on the location of call centres contracted to Government Departments.

TREASURY

Bank Services

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of banks which offer basic bank accounts; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: All of the major banks currently offer basic bank accounts. At present there are around 16 different basic bank accounts on offer in the UK.
	More information on the different types of basic bank account on offer is available from the Money Advice Service on their website at:
	http://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/_assets/downloads/pdfs/your_money/a5_guides/basic_bank_accounts.pdf

Child Benefit

Guto Bebb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost to employers of adjusting PAYE systems to reclaim child benefit from people earning between £50,000 and £60,000.

David Gauke: The high income child benefit charge will be implemented through self assessment for all customers. However, the charge can be collected through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax code rather than paid as a lump sum where the taxpayer is also in PAYE. Employers will not need to adjust their PAYE systems in response to this, and can continue to operate PAYE codes in the usual way.
	The Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) sets out the impact on businesses of the high income child benefit charge. This was published on HMRC's website
	www.hmrc.gov.uk

Devolution: Scotland

Ann McKechin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the Barnett consequentials for Scotland for financial years (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15 arising from the decision to devolve council tax benefit.

Danny Alexander: holding answer 25 April 2012
	The amount that will be transferred to Scotland will be finalised in due course.

Excise Duties: Alcoholic Drinks

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give consideration to (a) reducing the rate at which excise duty is applied to beer and (b) increasing the rate at which excise duty is applied to intoxicating liquors as part of efforts to tackle irresponsible alcohol consumption.

Chloe Smith: Decisions on excise duty rates are a matter for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), at Budget. Treasury Ministers consider a wide range of options for alcohol duty rates, as part of the usual decision-making process for Budget.
	Budget 2012 confirmed plans inherited from the previous Government that rates of alcohol duty would increase by 2% above inflation (RPI).
	The Government launched its “Alcohol Strategy” on 23 March. This sets out action to tackle irresponsible drinking, and is targeted explicitly at harmful drinkers, problem pubs and irresponsible shops. The Strategy includes a commitment to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol and to consult on the introduction of a ban on multi-buy promotions in the off-trade.

Flowers

Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on (a) cut flowers and (b) pot plants between May 2010 and February 2012.

Chloe Smith: Since May 2010 there has been no spending within the Department on cut flowers.
	The cost of the provision and maintenance of indoor plants within the 1 Horse Guards road building between May 2010 and February 2012 was £16,163.
	Comparable costs for the previous 22 months (July 2008 to April 2010) were £22,181.

Income Tax

Michael Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the revenue to the Exchequer (a) gained and (b) foregone as a result of the recent changes in the top rate of income tax for persons earning (i) £150,000 a year, (ii) £250,000 a year, (iii) £500,000 a year, (iv) £1,000,000 a year, (v) £2,000,000 a year and (vi) £5,000,000 or more per year; and what the (A) gain and (B) revenue to the Exchequer foregone is for each in pension tax relief as a result of his recently announced change.

David Gauke: holding answer 18 April 2012
	At Budget 2012 the Chancellor announced a reduction in the additional rate of income tax applicable on incomes above £150,000 to 45% from 2013-14.
	The impact of this measure on Exchequer revenues can be found in Table 2.1 of the Budget 2012 report.
	The estimated cost includes the change in the value of pension tax relief, and behavioural responses of those affected—including changes in the level of tax reliefs they make use of.
	Details of how this cost was estimated can be found in Annex A of HMRC's Report “The Exchequer effect of the 50 per cent additional rate of income tax”, available at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/excheq-income-tax-2042.pdf
	The Exchequer impact of this measure is not available broken down by income band.
	Taken together, it is estimated that the reduction in the additional rate of income tax to 45%, the cap on previously uncapped income tax reliefs at £50,000 or 25% of income (whichever is the greater) and the increase in stamp duty rates for high value properties will result in an expected average contribution to the Exchequer from those with incomes of above £150,000 of an additional £1,300 a year.

Income Tax

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  if he will place in the Library a copy of the report prepared for him by HM Revenue and Customs on the proportion of income paid in tax by a selected group of high income individuals;
	(2)  with reference to the study prepared for him by HM Revenue and Customs on the income tax paid by some high net worth individuals, how many of the approximately 330 individuals paying less than 10 per cent in tax made major donations to charity on which they claimed reliefs; and what proportion of their reduced tax bill was achieved through deploying tax reliefs of charitable gifts (a) on average and (b) in the (i) highest and (ii) lowest cases.

David Gauke: holding answer 24 April 2012
	The proportion of taxpayers liable to income tax by their total income and average income tax rate are shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Proportion (%) of individuals reporting various average tax rates by total income category (2010-11) 
			  Income 
			 Average tax rates £100,000 to £150,000 £150,000 to £250,000 £250,000 to £500,000 £500,000 to £1,000,000 £1,000,000 to £5,000,000 £5,000,000 to £10,000,000 Over £10,000,000 
			 Above 40% 0 6 73 81 80 81 72 
		
	
	
		
			 30% to 40% 67 77 18 11 10 8 12 
			 20% to 30% 24 13 5 4 5 4 8 
			 10% to 20% 8 3 2 2 2 3 3 
			 Under 10% 1 2 2 2 3 4 6 
		
	
	Figures are based on an analysis of self-assessment (SA) returns for the 2010-11 tax year, as available at Budget 2012. Income bands include those with average rates at the lower limit (e.g. a tax rate of exactly 30% falls in the “30% to <40%” category).
	At Budget 2012 the Government announced it would introduce a cap on unlimited income tax reliefs to ensure that those on higher incomes cannot use them excessively. The Government will explore with philanthropists ways to ensure this new limit on uncapped reliefs will not impact significantly on charities that depend on large donations to carry out their charitable activities. A consultation document on the detail of the policy will be published in the summer.

Income Tax: Colchester

Bob Russell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of people in Colchester constituency who pay the additional rate of income tax.

David Gauke: holding answer 26 March 2012
	Data on the number of additional rate tax payers at parliamentary constituency level are not published.

Income Tax: Tax Rates and Bands

David Blunkett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were liable for the 50 pence income tax rate in each (a) region, (b) parliamentary constituency and (c) local authority at the latest date for which figures are available.

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in (a) Ogmore constituency and (b) Wales will be liable to pay the 45 pence rate of income tax from April 2013.

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what his estimate is of the number of taxpayers in Northern Ireland who will be affected by the reduction in the 50 per cent rate of income tax;
	(2)  what his estimate is of the cost to the Exchequer of the reduction in the 50 per cent rate of income tax for Northern Ireland.

David Gauke: Updated statistics on taxpayer populations and liabilities will be published on the HMRC website on 27 April 2012:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/income_tax/index.htm
	Data on the number of additional rate payers at a local authority and parliamentary constituency level are not published.
	An estimate of the cost to the Exchequer of the reduction in the 50% rate of income tax for Northern Ireland alone cannot be made. The additional rate costing includes a significant behavioural response which is only estimated in aggregate.
	For more details see the HMRC report “The Exchequer effect of the 50 per cent additional rate of income tax”, available at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/excheq-income-tax-2042.pdf

Income Tax: Tax Rates and Bands

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of people who will move from paying the basic rate of income tax into the higher tax band from April 2013 in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) each parliamentary constituency in the UK.

David Gauke: holding answer 16 April 2012
	It is estimated that 590,000 basic rate taxpayers will become higher rate taxpayers in 2013-14, of which 51,000 are resident in Scotland.
	The majority of those brought into higher rate tax will still pay less income tax and national insurance in 2013-14 because of the increase in the personal allowance announced in Budget 2012.
	Reliable estimates are not available at the parliamentary constituency level, due to greater uncertainties in making projections for small geographical areas and small sample sizes.
	These estimates are based on the 2009-10 Survey of Personal Incomes data projected to 2013-14 in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2012 economic and fiscal outlook.

Income Tax: Tax Rates and Bands

Alistair Darling: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was to the public purse of producing the document entitled The Exchequer effect of the 50 per cent additional rate in income tax, published by HM Revenue and Customs on 21 March 2012.

David Gauke: holding answer 16 April 2012
	At Budget 2011 the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that he had asked HM Revenue and Customs to assess the revenue from the 50% additional rate of income tax. The cost of analysis of the self-assessment data and consideration of evidence around behavioural response forms part of HMRC's baseline running costs.

Meetings

Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had any discussions on (i) the Helioslough Radlett rail freight exchange proposal and (ii) other rail freight issues since May 2010; and whether they have received any representations on these issues since May 2010;
	(2)  whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had any meetings with (i) Simon Hoare, (ii) CGMS, (iii) Freshwater UK, (iv) Intermodality LLP, (v) BNP Paribas Real Estate, (vi) Helio Europe and (vii) Bircham Dyson Bell LLP since May 2010; and whether he has received any recent representations from each such individual or organisation since May 2010.

Danny Alexander: The Government published “The Logistics Review—Connecting People with Goods” in November 2011 alongside the autumn statement. Its aim is to examine the conditions for logistics sector success including issues such as rail freight, and to identify what actions Government can take to address barriers to growth of the industry.
	Following on from this process run through the Government's Growth Review, officials have been given details of the proposal for a strategic rail freight interchange north of the M25.
	Treasury Ministers and officials receive regular correspondence and representations from external organisations whom they engage with as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
	The Treasury publishes a list of ministerial meetings with external organisations, available at:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/minister_hospitality.htm

PAYE

Stephen Timms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the interim solution adopted for real time information for PAYE will allow for reconciliation of information provided by employers with actual sums paid to employees when those employers make payments through internet banking and do not have a BACS service user number.

David Gauke: The reconciliation of information provided by employers with the sums paid to employees will be facilitated by a cross-reference in the payment instruction where payments are made to an employee using a BACS service user number. Payments made using internet banking will not include the cross-reference when real time information is first implemented.
	Over time, HMRC may extend the requirement for a cross-reference to other electronic payment methods.

Pensioners

Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employee personal pension arrangements were (a) DSS rebated only, (b) DSS and employee contribution based, (c) DSS employee and employer contribution based and (d) in another form in each of the last 30 years.

David Gauke: Estimates of contributions to personal pensions for 2010-11 are contained in table PEN2 of HMRC's Personal Pension Statistics:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/pensions/pensions-intro.pdf
	The estimates show the total number of scheme members and a breakdown of the minimum contributions, employee contributions and employer contributions.

Personal Income: Wales

Jessica Morden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many 
	(1)  higher rate taxpayers there were in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales in the last year for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many individuals earnt over £1 million in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales in the last year for which figures are available.

David Gauke: holding answer 26 March 2012
	There were an estimated 3.19 million higher rate taxpayers in the UK in 2009-10, and 16,000 taxpayers with total income assessable for income tax over £1 million.
	There were an estimated 90,000 higher rate taxpayers in Wales and 2,000 in Newport East in 2009-10.
	Reliable estimates for individuals with total income over £1 million in Wales and Newport East are not available due to small sample sizes.
	Estimates are based on the 2009-10 Survey of Personal Incomes.

Personal Income: Wales

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households in (a) Ogmore constituency and (b) Wales earn more than (i) £50,000 and (ii) £60,000 per annum.

David Gauke: The information required to address this question is available only from the Family Resources Survey, an annual survey of 25,000 private households across the UK. The sample is too small for estimates to be possible for individual parliamentary constituencies, and even for Wales as a whole the estimates are in this case fairly imprecise.
	The latest available Family Resources Survey data are for 2009-10. All estimates from this source are rounded to the nearest 100,000, given their inevitable imprecision.
	The estimates of the number of households in Wales earning more than £50,000 and earning more than £60,000 both round to 100,000. (The actual numbers will of course be different but this difference is lost within the rounding.)
	A household is defined as a single person or group of people living at the same address as their only or main residence, who either share one meal a day together or share the living accommodation (i.e. living room). A household will consist of one or more families.
	This analysis has been carried out on the basis of gross earnings only (i.e. income from employment or self-employment) rather than income, so it excludes income from investments, state support and other sources.

Public Sector: Pensions

Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) men and (b) women in employment were members of public sector pension schemes in each of the last 30 years.

Danny Alexander: The Treasury has responsibility for setting overarching public service pensions policy. Individual public service schemes are the responsibility of the relevant Secretaries of State and the data on membership are held by the relevant individual Department.

Tax Allowances: Charitable Donations

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of the financial effect on charities of his proposal to introduce a cap on tax relief for charitable donations.

David Gauke: holding answer 24 April 2012
	At Budget 2012 the Government announced it would introduce a cap on unlimited income tax reliefs to ensure that those on higher incomes cannot use them excessively.
	The Government will explore with charities and philanthropists ways to ensure this new limit on uncapped reliefs will not impact significantly on charities that depend on large donations to carry out their charitable activities.
	A consultation document on the detail of the policy, including the implications for philanthropic giving, will be published in the summer.

Tax Allowances: Pensioners

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  with reference to the Budget Statement, what the cost to the Exchequer is of the changes to the personal age-related allowances for pensioners in Northern Ireland;
	(2)  what his estimate is of the number of pensioners in Northern Ireland who will be affected by the freezing of the age-related personal allowance for pensioners in April 2012;
	(3)  what his estimate is of the number of pensioners in Northern Ireland who will be affected by his abolition of the age-related personal allowance in April 2013.

David Gauke: The Government remains committed to supporting pensioners and has introduced a triple guarantee for the basic state pension ensuring it will increase each year by the highest of earnings, prices or 2.5% From April 2012, the basic state pension increased by £5.30 per week, the biggest cash increase ever. The Government has also protected other key pensioner benefits.
	In 2013-14, it is estimated that the changes to the age-related personal allowances will yield £360 million in 2013-14 of which around 2.2% will be from individuals resident in Northern Ireland.
	It is estimated that in Northern Ireland, 91,000 individuals will be affected in real terms by the combined changes to age-related personal allowances. Within this total, 89,000 are estimated to be affected by the freeze in the amount of these allowances and 13,000 by the changes to the eligibility conditions for them. The estimates do not sum to the total as some individuals are affected by both announcements.
	None will lose in cash terms. Those individuals who will no longer be eligible for the age-related allowances will benefit from the largest ever cash increase in the level of the personal allowance and further increases in future as part of the Government's long term commitment to increase the personal allowance to £10,000.
	These estimates are based on the 2009-10 Survey of Personal Incomes data projected to 2013-14 in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2012 economic and fiscal outlook.

Taxation: Bingo

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the rate of gross profits tax levied on (a) bingo clubs and (b) bookmakers; and for what reasons there is a difference between the two rates.

Chloe Smith: The rates of general betting duty, and bingo duty were set by the previous Government. Bingo duty is charged at 20% of gross profits and general betting duty is charged at 15% of gross profits. The March 2012 Budget left rates unchanged. All taxes, including gambling taxes, are kept under review.

Taxation: Bingo

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received from the bingo industry on the relationship between bingo gross profits tax and total tax revenue from the gaming sector.

Chloe Smith: Treasury Ministers and officials meet with, and receive representations from, a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the usual policymaking process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such representations.

Taxation: Bingo

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport on bingo taxation.

Chloe Smith: Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the usual policymaking process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such discussions.

Taxation: Bingo

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the rate of machine games duty on the bingo industry.

Chloe Smith: The assessment of the impact of Machine Games Duty (MGD) on individuals and businesses is available in the relevant Tax Information and Impacts Note published at Budget 2012. This document is accessible at the HMRC website:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/tiin-0738.pdf

Taxation: Bingo

Bob Russell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the likely effect on the overall taxation burden on the bingo industry of the planned introduction of machine games duty at 20 per cent; and whether he has considered representations from the bingo industry that the revenue neutral rate would be just over 16 per cent;
	(2)  when he will be able to assess the detailed tax effect on the bingo industry of the planned introduction of machine games duty at 20 per cent.

Chloe Smith: The announced revenue-neutral machine games duty (MGD) rates are based on data from HM Revenue and Customs, the Gambling Commission, data supplied by the industry, and published financial accounts. All representations received from industry have been considered.
	The impact of MGD both across and within gambling sectors was analysed before the rates of MGD were announced at Budget 2012. The assessment of the impact of MGD on individuals and businesses is summarised in the relevant Tax Information and Impacts Note (TIIN) published alongside the Budget. This document is accessible at the HMRC website:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/tiin-0738.pdf
	As indicated in the TIIN, the impact of the measure on tax receipts will be monitored after implementation. The impact on compliance costs will also be considered for evaluation.

Taxation: Multinational Companies

Michael Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will discuss with his EU counterparts introducing a policy requiring that taxes be paid by companies in countries where their products are made or their services delivered, irrespective of where their ownership is registered.

David Gauke: All companies which are resident or which have a permanent establishment in the UK are subject to corporate tax on their UK trading activities. This is an approach shared by our EU partners. Treasury Ministers are engaged in dialogue with their European counterparts on a variety of issues, including tax.

Taxation: Multinational Companies

Michael Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy that profits made by (a) Amazon and (b) other retailers from book sales in the UK are taxed in the UK and not in another country.

David Gauke: Internet-based booksellers trading in the UK are subject to tax on their profits in the same way as any other company operating in the UK.

Taxation: Self-assessment

David Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will require HM Revenue and Customs to allow members of the public to use the free online system to submit form SA101.

David Gauke: Members of the public who are in self-assessment and file their self-assessment tax return on paper may need to provide HMRC with further information on form SA101. If this information is relevant for people who do their self-assessment return online then the relevant questions are included in the return.
	The majority of people who are in self-assessment file their return online.

Taxation: Self-assessment

David Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with HM Revenue and Customs about allowing public enquiries to the self-assessment helpline and tax enquiries line to be dealt with by email.

David Gauke: HMRC has over 100 electronic contact services available to customers that offer a structured and secure means of communicating with HMRC through its website and we are always looking to provide more. HMRC will only introduce electronic contact solutions where we are certain about the authenticity of the person sending the e-mail and where there are strong controls around the data being sent.
	This is common across all of HMRC's lines of business, including self-assessment.

Taxation: Self-assessment

David Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the HM Revenue and Customs target time is to answer telephone calls on the (a) self-assessment helpline and (b) tax enquiries line.

David Gauke: HMRC do not have a target time for answering telephone calls.
	HMRC uses a variety of measures to assess the accessibility of telephone services which include the percentage of call attempts handled by its contact centres. In 2011-12, HMRC has significantly improved the number of call attempts handled to 74% (compared to 48% in the previous year).
	HMRC recognise that there are further improvements to be made and aim to achieve 90% of call attempts handled by 2014-15.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the proportion of the market for cigarettes accounted for by illegal cigarettes in (a) the UK and (b) Northern Ireland in each of the last five years;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the revenue forgone due to tobacco smuggling in (a) the UK and (b) Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.

Chloe Smith: Estimates of the illicit market share for cigarettes in the UK are shown in the following table. Also included are estimates of total revenue losses associated with the illicit market of tobacco products.
	
		
			 Illicit market for tobacco and associated revenue losses (1) 
			  2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 
			 Illicit Market Share for Cigarettes (percentage) 16 15 14 13 10 
			 Associated Revenue Losses for Cigarettes (£ million) 2,000 1,900 1,700 1,700 1,300 
			 Associated Revenue Losses for Hand-Rolling Tobacco (£ million) 830 790 690 820 750 
			 (1) Includes both duty and VAT. 
		
	
	These estimates are published in “Measuring Tax Gaps 2011”, which can be found at the following link:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/measuring-tax-gaps.htm
	Separate estimates for Northern Ireland are not available, nor are separate estimates for the revenue lost in the UK from tobacco smuggling.

VAT

James Gray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of listed properties owned by (a) the Government, (b) Historic Royal Palaces, (c) the Church Commissioners and (d) Parliament in developing his proposals to charge VAT on alterations to listed buildings; what estimate he has made of the cost of alterations planned to such buildings; and what increase in VAT collected he has calculated will result from his proposals.

David Gauke: Annex B—Tables of Impact for individual Measures in HM Revenue and Customs consultation document "VAT; Addressing Borderline Anomalies", published at Budget 2012, sets out estimates for VAT which will be raised from approved alterations to listed buildings and a summary of impacts upon which comments are invited.
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/vat-con-4801.pdf

VAT

Julian Lewis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he made of the effect on listed churches of the imposition of VAT on alterations to listed buildings; what proportion of the extra cost to listed churches will be offset by any increases in the funding of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; and if he will make it his policy to exclude listed places of worship from the imposition of VAT on alteration work.

David Gauke: Annex B—Tables of Impact for Individual Measures in HM Revenue and Customs consultation document “VAT: Addressing Borderline Anomalies”, published at Budget 2012, sets out estimates for VAT which will be raised from approved alterations to listed buildings and a summary of impacts upon which comments are invited.
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/vat-con-4801.pdf
	Our original estimate, based on a church report produced in 2000, was that £5 million a year additional funding for the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would be adequate compensation for listed places of worship for the impact of the VAT change. We are talking to churches and will increase this amount of there is evidence that the impact is greater.

JUSTICE

Crime: Victims

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what information his Department holds on the number of victims of crime in Wales in 2011 who had learning difficulties.

Nick Herbert: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Home Department.
	The police recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office do not hold any information on victims of crime with learning difficulties.
	The Crime Survey for England and Wales, formerly the British Crime Survey, collects information on crimes and the victims of crimes. While the survey does ask respondents whether they have a disability, including learning difficulties, the size of the sample in Wales since the question was added to the survey is too small to provide a robust estimate of the proportion of victims with learning difficulties.

Electronic Tagging

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  if he will estimate the effect on rates of failure to comply or other breaches of increasing the electronic tag sentence maximum from eight to 16 hours;
	(2)  if he will estimate the effect on rates of failure to comply or other breaches of increasing the electronic tag sentence maximum from six to 12 months.

Crispin Blunt: Provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will raise the maximum hours for a curfew requirement as part of a sentence from 12 to 16 hours per day and the maximum duration from six to 12 months. The Impact Assessment for the Bill, published on the Ministry of Justice website, recognises that there may be a minimal additional cost as a result of changes to curfew requirements. We will however monitor the use of, and compliance with, electronically monitored curfew requirements when the provisions are implemented.

Prisons: Construction

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many new prison places have been created; and how many such places are shared by (a) two and (b) three prisoners in each year since 1997.

Crispin Blunt: The following table shows the number of new places delivered in new prisons or through large scale/significant expansions at existing prisons in each financial year since 1997-98. This totals 26,386 places.
	
		
			  Places delivered 
			 1997-98 4,853 
			 1998-99 1,222 
			 1999-2000 1,646 
			 2000-01 640 
			 2001-02 920 
			 2002-03 1,780 
			 2003-04 1,340 
			 2004-05 2,570 
			 2005-06 1,120 
			 2006-07 300 
			 2007-08 2,295 
			 2008-09 2,308 
			 2009-10 2,805 
			 2010-11 1,807 
			 2011-12 780 
			 Total 26,386 
		
	
	The number of these new places that are shared by two and three prisoners in each year since 1997 can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Probation

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what have been the savings from the merger of Surrey and Sussex probation trusts in 2011-12.

Crispin Blunt: The Audit Commission noted in its annual audit letter for 2010-11 that efficiencies of £1.7 million were identified as part of the Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust merger project and that significant reductions in cost were achieved during the year through combining Board and Executive Teams and the merger of Support Services teams.
	The reduced level of resources needed to support the running of back-office functions allowed a higher proportion of allocated funding to be utilised on the delivery of front-line services to offenders, victims and the courts.

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Sexual Harassment

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what assessment she has made of the effect of sexual harassment of women in male-dominated professions on their professional advancement.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 24 April 2012
	I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Home Department.
	Under the Equality Act 2010, which this Government brought into force, sexual harassment in the workplace is unlawful. We have made no assessment of the effect of sexual harassment of women in male-dominated professions on their professional advancement.